Here we have answered another one of your adoption questions, this time concerning the Government benefits you are entitled to as an adopter and how to get them more quickly.

Question:

I have been told that we cannot qualify for working families tax credit because our son has not been legally adopted yet, but he has been with us seven weeks now.

I think this is very unfair as my husband is on a low wage and we have not had any help from anywhere.

They won't even give us child benefit until they see his birth certificate which we don't get until its gone to court.

Is there anything we can claim before we legally adopt him?

Answer:

This is something I do know about from personal experience.

We adopted Joshua last year, and were told by Social Security that we were unable to claim anything for him untill he was legally adopted, apart from Child benefit that is.

This is unfair. He is already classed as a member of the family, but they will not recognise this fact, something needs to change I feel.

You say you cannot claim it without his birth certificate?

We were in the same situation, and passed all child benefit forms on to our social worker who then filled them in, and sent off confirmation that he was placed with us ready for adoption, and the certificate would be following when his legal status changed.

The child benefit was then awarded to us, (it takes approximately seven weeks to come through though, so be warned) and every six months they write to ask if his birth certificate is in our possession, which it now is, and it has now ben sent to them.

Contact your social worker, she should be doing all this for you.

In reference to the tax credit.....I don't know enough about this, but contact your local tax office, if you have not done so already, they should be able to help.

Best wishes, Jan - Adopter and freelance writer and for Adoption-net.