Care Allowance Campaign Progress to August 2024
The Care Allowance Campaign is officially a year old. In the year, the real value of the Care Allowance has dipped even further as the cost of living rises with inadequate indexation to meet costs.
The Foster Care Association of Victoria and Permanent Care and Adoptive Families continues to run the Petition to Increase the Care Allowance as we continue to lose carers from the system in Victoria at an alarming rate. The FCAV’s latest Snapshot shows a loss of nearly 100 foster care households from the system in the 12 months to March 2024. This backs up the most recent data from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare.
With current attrition rates and the increase in the numbers of children entering care, the Victorian Government stands to spend millions in inadequate and unsafe contingency care and children as young as 7 being placed in residential care.
The system is at breaking point and the Care Allowance is an intrinsic factor in its sustainability.
We call on Minister for Child Protection and Carers, Lizzie Blandthorn to advocate with Treasury and the Premier Jacinta Allan to recognise that this is not just a cost efficiency issue to be proved in economic modelling but a human rights issue for our most vulnerable children and young people and the carers whose goodwill and big hearts are being exploited by it.
We thank over 2,650 submitters and sector organisations, carers, ACCOs, leaders and young care leavers who are joining the campaign and saying, enough.
In March 2022, Matthew Bach, then opposition spokesperson for Child Protection, publicly called on the Government to increase the Care Allowance and provide better supports to carers via funding for the Carer Strategy in a speech to Parliament. Dr Bach highlighted that at the time:
• 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗰𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗮𝗹𝗹𝗼𝘄𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗯𝗲 𝗶𝗻𝗱𝗲𝘅𝗲𝗱. 𝗟𝗮𝘀𝘁 𝗶𝗻𝗰𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘀𝗲𝗱 𝗯𝘆 𝗮 𝗺𝗼𝗱𝗲𝘀𝘁 $𝟮𝟬 𝗽𝗲𝗿 𝘄𝗲𝗲𝗸 𝗶𝗻 𝟮𝟬𝟭𝟲.
• 𝗖𝗮𝗿𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗻𝗼𝘄 𝟭𝟬% 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝘀𝗲 𝗼𝗳𝗳 𝗳𝗶𝗻𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗶𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘆 𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗖𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗔𝗹𝗹𝗼𝘄𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝘄𝗮𝘀 𝗹𝗮𝘀𝘁 𝗶𝗻𝗰𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘀𝗲𝗱 (𝗶𝗻 𝟮𝟬𝟭𝟲).
• 𝗔 𝗡𝗦𝗪 𝗰𝗮𝗿𝗲𝗿 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗮 𝟲 𝘆𝗲𝗮𝗿 𝗼𝗹𝗱 𝗰𝗵𝗶𝗹𝗱 𝗿𝗲𝗰𝗲𝗶𝘃𝗲𝘀 𝗮𝗽𝗽𝗿𝗼𝘅𝗶𝗺𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗹𝘆 $𝟭𝟲𝟬 𝗺𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝗽𝗲𝗿 𝗳𝗼𝗿𝘁𝗻𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝗻 𝗮 𝗩𝗶𝗰𝘁𝗼𝗿𝗶𝗮𝗻 𝗰𝗮𝗿𝗲𝗿 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘀𝗮𝗺𝗲 𝗮𝗴𝗲𝗱 𝗰𝗵𝗶𝗹𝗱.
Dr Bach also queried why the Government had not allocated any funding to implement the Carer Strategy (Strong Carers, Stronger Children) which is a plan to better support carers through administrative and policy reforms. He also noted that Minister has failed to release two reports into the financial welfare of Victorian foster carers which purportedly demonstrate that they are significantly underpaid compared to other states and that the Care Allowance needs to be increased and restructured.
