| Mr Hosie, who has taken up the case of the Dundee gran left to raise her granddaughter on around £60-a-week, was speaking as experts claimed thousands of families across the UK are facing the same predicament.
“Over the years, I have dealt with a number of cases where for one reason or another vulnerable children had to be either taken into care or placed with another family member,” he said.
“It is a recurring situation, and sadly, often due to alcohol or drug-addiction, a mother may not be the best person to have care of her child.”
He said in such cases a residency order can often be granted rather than having the child taken into care.
“This can be done quite quickly,” he said.
“But the problem comes with the timescale for child benefits if these need to be moved over to an aunt, grandparents or other kinship carers.
“The transfer of benefits needs to be signed over with agreement of both parties within a 28-day period, but the mother may be able to continue to claim the child benefits for up to eight weeks before it is stopped.
“In some cases, there may be complete family breakdown and the mother will refuse to sign over the benefits.
“In the meantime, the carers of the vulnerable child will be unable to obtain either child benefit or tax credits and can be seriously out of pocket.”
Alluding to the case of the tragic Douglas toddler Brandon Muir, whose grandparents had expressed concerns over his care shortly before he was killed by his mother’s partner, Mr Hosie said it was clear the support of other family members was crucial in some situations.
He said, “One of the recommendations of the Brandon Muir case was greater discretion for social workers to remove vulnerable children, when they are deemed to be at risk, and place them with other family members who are willing to step in and care for them.
“I think that the Child Benefit Office needs to be equally responsive to such situations.
“They should have greater discretion and more flexibility to support kinship carers when social workers are concerned in a particular case, that a vulnerable child is at risk.”
Mr Hosie added that a change in the law could be required to resolve the problem.
“There might be a case for new legislation to make it easier for kinship carers to obtain Child Benefit if a Residency Order has been granted to them and the child has been removed from the mother on the grounds of its being at risk,” he said.
“It is the safety of the child that is paramount.” |
