Informal Kinship Care in Northern Ireland and the IC1 NI Form

What Informal Kinship Care Means

Informal kinship care is the most common arrangement in Northern Ireland — a grandparent, aunt, uncle or family friend takes in a child without any court order or formal approval. The child simply moves in because a parent cannot cope, and the family sorts it out privately.

Under Article 6(7) of the Children (Northern Ireland) Order 1995, anyone who has care of a child but lacks parental responsibility may do what is reasonable to safeguard or promote the child's welfare. In practice, this means you can feed, clothe and house the child, get them to school, and handle routine daily care.

What it does not mean is that you have legal authority. An informal carer has no parental responsibility. Schools may question your right to enrol the child. GPs may hesitate over medical consent. And a birth parent can, legally, walk in and take the child at any time — no court order is needed to reclaim a child from an informal arrangement.

Many families operate informally for years without problems. The arrangement works until it does not — until a school refuses to act on your instructions, or a benefit office asks for proof, or a birth parent threatens to disrupt the child's stability.

The IC1 NI Form: What It Does

The IC1 NI form — formally titled "Support for a child who is informally living with you" — is a Department for Communities (DfC) document that verifies an informal caring arrangement for social security purposes.

It works like this: a registered social worker in Northern Ireland completes the form, confirming that the child is living informally with you and cannot live with their birth parents. The form provides DfC with evidence of the informal arrangement; since the two-child limit was abolished from 6 April 2026, it is no longer needed for a UC two-child-limit exception.

What the IC1 NI form is:

• An administrative document for benefit verification
• Completed by a social worker, not by you
• Evidence that the child is genuinely in your care under an informal arrangement

What the IC1 NI form is not:

• A court order
• A grant of parental responsibility
• A guarantee of any specific payment

The DfC guidance for the IC1 NI form was written for social workers, not for carers. If you ask to see the guidance document, it reads like an internal procedure manual. The practical step for you is to contact your local HSC Trust's children's services and request that a social worker assess your arrangement and complete the form.

Why the IC1 NI Form Still Matters After April 2026

Before 6 April 2026, the IC1 NI form was critical for informal kinship carers because it enabled the exception to the Universal Credit two-child limit. A kinship carer raising a third or subsequent child needed the form to receive the UC child element for that child.

Since 6 April 2026, the two-child limit has been abolished across the UK. You no longer need an exception to receive UC child elements for any number of children.

But the IC1 NI form still serves a purpose: it provides DfC with verified evidence that the child lives with you informally. If DfC questions your household composition — particularly if a birth parent is also claiming benefits for the same child — the IC1 NI assessment gives you documented proof from an independent professional.

When Informal Care Is Enough

An informal arrangement may work perfectly well if:

• Both birth parents cooperate and provide written consent when you need it (school trips, medical referrals, passport applications)
• No institution is questioning your authority
• The arrangement is stable and unlikely to be disrupted
• You are receiving the benefits you need without difficulty

Many grandparents care informally for years and never need a court order. The key question is whether the lack of legal authority is causing practical problems in the child's life.

When You Need to Formalise

Consider applying for a residence order if:

• A school or GP is refusing to act without proof of parental responsibility
• You need to take the child abroad
• A birth parent is threatening to remove the child or disrupting the arrangement
• You want to apply for a Residence Order Allowance from the HSC Trust (which requires a court order)
• You want the security of knowing the arrangement cannot be undone without a court hearing

Moving from informal care to a residence order does not mean something has gone wrong. It means you are giving the child legal stability that matches the practical reality of their life.

The Northern Ireland Kinship Care guide walks through both the informal and formal routes — including how to request an IC1 NI assessment, how to check your standing for a residence order under Article 10, and the full financial picture for each arrangement. Whether you stay informal or move to a court order, the process is clearer when it is written down in one place.

See more Northern Ireland guides →