Grandparents in America who privately foster their grandchildren are pursuing legal action to claim the same allowances paid to people who foster children unrelated to them.

Their case is being backed by the American Civil Liberties Union which claims that state authorities in Philadelphia are each year illegally withholding millions in benefits due to grandparents, aunts, uncles, and other family members caring for the children of troubled relatives in an effort to save money.

But, according to the lawsuit, officials in some counties explicitly told foster parents that agencies were trying to scrap kinship payments and refused to provide them. Others simply did not advise foster parents that they were entitled to such payments.

In one case, officials asked a woman to care for her niece's infant child for two weeks on an emergency basis. That was eight years ago and the agency never contacted the woman again.

Marsha L. Levick, legal director of America's Juvenile Law Center, which is also backing the lawsuit, says that state fostering agencies have a legal duty not to discriminate between private foster carers and non-relative foster parents.

She said: "We have heard stories from across Pennsylvania of caring relatives taking in the abused and neglected children of their own family members, only to have the door to financial assistance shut on them."

Witold J. Walczak, of the ACLU said: "It is shameful that some public officials have chosen to balance their budgets on the backs of needy children."

The law center and ACLU say that not paying "kinship care" money to cover basic necessities such as food, clothing, shelter, daily supervision, and school books, "contributes to the cycle of poverty in which so many of these children find themselves".

The ACLU says that American states also have a duty to first look at placing children with friends or relatives but by not paying kinship care benefits, it makes it harder for families to accept the children of relatives.

The legal action affects about 7,500 children, although the ACLU believes a successful outcome could improve the lives of thousands more children across the USA.