People in London are in favour of better financial and practical help for grandparents raising children because their parents can’t look after them, according to a new poll commissioned by charities Grandparents Plus, the Family and Parenting Institute and Family Lives.

The poll found that:

• Around 70% of adults in London think grandparents and other relatives bringing up a child should receive practical help from their local council,
• 58% think they should receive a financial allowance,
• 69% think grandparents should get a financial allowance if they are on a low income, and
• 71% think they should receive similar support to foster carers.

Evidence from Grandparents Plus research ‘Giving up the day job?’ published last year found that 47% of kinship carers give up work when they take on the care of a child. As a result 41% are then dependent on welfare benefits. Around 60,000 have dropped out of the labour market, equivalent to at least 9,000 a year.

The survey also found that:

• 13% of kinship carers are raising three or more children who are not their own,
• 27% are raising two children who are not their own, and
• 14% also have children of their own under the age of 18 living with them.