Children raised by friends or relatives are being ‘plunged into poverty’, says UK charity

A lack of financial and emotional support for kinship carers could push up to 18,000 children into an already overstretched foster care system

Children are being “plunged into ­poverty”, a charity says, because of a lack of support for kinship ­carers – relatives or family friends who step in to look after children after a crisis.

Kinship carers, who are often grandparents, are twice as likely as other adults to rely on food banks and four times as likely to fall behind on their bills, according to a new report.