Surrogacy is not about financial incentive but about creating a family. It is not illegal to receive more than reasonable expenses in the UK, and many expenses payments for UK surrogacy do in reality include an acknowledgment of your and your family’s time and commitment. However, it is important that this is never a major motivator.
Managing expenses is a key part of any UK surrogacy arrangement, and our approach is to encourage clarity and transparency about any financial arrangements. Having worked with numerous intended parents and surrogates, we can give you guidance and practical support to help navigate this issue smoothly, as well as independent legal advice so you are clear about what the law allows.
Contact us for a surrogate application form or to find out more.
Surrogates in the UK are typically compensated between £8,000 and £20,000 for their expenses and other costs, often with additional amounts if exceptional circumstances arise. The amount agreed is personal to every arrangement as the logistics and needs vary.
As a surrogate, you can expect at a minimum to be reimbursed for all your expenses and not to be left out of pocket. Any compensation and/or expenses paid to you should be clear upfront and would be part of a discussion between you and your intended parents that we help facilitate as part of our matching and management service.
The amount of payment is one of the gateway criteria for your intended parents applying for a parental order, which is how they gain parental status. The family court will want to understand what has been paid, and whether it is for ‘reasonable expenses’ or needs to be authorised. Financial arrangements should be clarified from the outset of any surrogacy arrangement and an outline of what this will form part of our matching criteria. As a surrogate, you need to be comfortable that you will be reimbursed and your IP’s will want to be able to budget properly.
By way of a guideline, the following expenses should always be considered:
Other costs that your IPs will cover the cost of include:
Providing information about being a surrogate and how the process works from your perspective is one way in which we hope to encourage more UK surrogates to come forward.
You can find out more about being a surrogate on the following pages:
Our team is also available by phone and email to discuss this with any potential surrogates, and we are routinely travelling the UK for surrogate coffee mornings.