FIONA TE WIERIK
Victorian Foster Carers receive a Care Allowance which is only a contribution to the household costs of raising a child in home-based care. The Level 1 Victorian Care Allowance (for a child between 0-7) is only $223.48 per week and is the lowest Care Allowance rate in Australia. The Victorian Care Allowance is not indexed to Consumer Price Index (CPI) whereas some States receive an annual increase to align with the increased household cost of living. Consequently, the Victorian Care Allowance has declined substantially in real value in recent years.
The reality is that the Victorian Carer Allowance is not keeping up with the increase in cost of living. And we are losing Carers in Victoria at a net rate of 100 carer households year on year with one of the major reasons being financial stress. The cost to house children in Residential Care ranges from $561,246.00 to around $1.1million per child! In comparison, when placed with a volunteer foster carer, costs to house children reduce to between $70,992 to $161,914 per child. This is not only a substantial cost saving to the Victorian taxpayer.Research by the Cube Group—The Economic Value of Foster Carer (March 2022)—, found that 59% of foster carers in Victoria are using their personal funds to pay for medical/dental care and 58% of carers have had to dip into savings to provide care for foster children. Reports have found that foster carers provided an active volunteer caregiving role of 2.9 million hours in 2021-2022. (The Economic Value of Foster Carer, CUBE Group, March 2022). It is important to note that there is economic value to investing in foster carers. According to the Cube report previously mentioned; for every $1 the state government invests in Foster Care, $4 goes back into the economy.
So what can we do? Email your local State and Federal and ask, WHAT ARE YOU DOING FOR FOSTER CARERS IN VICTORIA?