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Nobody ever checked our finances except early in the assessment for approval process ! Won't do any harm to save what you can, you will almost certainly need it !

Nobody ever checked ours - for matching it’s more likely to be about whether you can afford parental leave and are aware of the extra expenses a child will bring - and can be flexible (plan A, B, C etc)

Hi, thanks for replies. Our sw rang and told us they would be going through again straight after the match was approved so we just assumed this was the norm, maybe just our agencies policy? I don't know.

That is very unusual. Do the children have special needs which would require you to spend more than the usual amount of money to look after them?

Do the children meet the threshold for adoption allowance. If so it might be in relation to that. Adoption allowance is means tested and you will have to declare your income, outgoings and savings for that. If an adoption allowance has been mentioned you most define don’t want to top up your savings, in fact you want to try and reduce them to ensure you get the allowance.

No, no special needs at all. I'm unsure about what is required for the adoption allowance?

Our finances were asked for again (by placing LA) at matching, and they asked us to do a income/outgoings sheet. They asked for 3 months worth of statements, evidence of savings, assets etc. By this point we were so fed up of being checked up on that we just provided a statement of accounts rather than individual account statements, nobody questioned it, I think it was just another tick box thing, I'm not sure if anyone actually looked at it properly.

Adoption Allowance availablity and requirements to qualify varies by county. We got it for our first child, from his placing authority, as he was classed as hard to place (older child - 10 at placement) Our second child was initially fostered by us, and our income went down when we adopted him, as there was no adoption allowance entitlement. We did get it back later, but that was because our income dropped again (I stopped work to meet his needs ) and they did not want us to have to move house which would have unsettled him, and also because he was offered a partial bursary for the best school for him, and it needed topped up. A few years back a big review in our county reduced the number of people getting an allowance , but it was generally agreed that those who lost it didnt really need it. We kept ours thankfully. Some people get adoption allowance for special needs kids, or taking on large sibling groups. Some counties its apparently not available at all. You will have to ask if you feel it is needed.

I don't think it's needed in our potential match, we would welcome it as any extra income is a help. We don't need it however so unless it was offered we wouldn't seek it out, thanks for your explanation on it though. As for the incomings and outgoings, we do have this on our fridge at home of all of these to keep us right and have done this for years so we don't overspend at certain times of the month. We could do an updated version I suppose as a prediction of what our new expenses could be with an added person living with us.