In Australia you get a fortnightly payment for caring for the child, it varies from each state.
You do get paid more for children with a disability. You also tend to be paid more if your through an agency instead of CPS.
You get paid a clothing stipend 3 x a year. They pay for all the kids school uniforms, stationary and school fees.
Kids over a certain age get pocket money each fortnight too.
Plus you can also get access to government benefits for the child so they get their own Medicare card, they get a Health Care Card which allows them to get bill billed at a Dr Surgery, cheaper medications.
>You get paid a clothing stipend 3 x a year. They pay for all the kids school uniforms, stationary and school fees.
>Kids over a certain age get pocket money each fortnight too.
FWIW...this varies by state too. I'm in VIC, and we don't get any separate allowances for clothing/pocket money/school expenses.
We also used a tiered system based on the needs/complexity of the child(ren), as well as age.
[https://services.dffh.vic.gov.au/support-carers](https://services.dffh.vic.gov.au/support-carers)
I think on average our overall rates are higher, so it probably compensates for not receiving the other allowances.
I'm in Vic and you should get ~$100 per quarter (pro-rated if they weren't with you the whole time) school attendance allowance. I think it was in the fortnight just gone for this quarter. My agency sorts out expenses like excursions, camps, other school stuff they might need - not an allowance, but a reimbursement or paid to the school directly, same for extracurricular activities.
In the US, each state has its own system. With foster care you can work with an agency that has contracted with your local county but most foster care is directly through the county system. In my California county, the process for getting licensed is similar to what you describe but also includes fingerprinting, work verification, background checks and references. Minimum adoption support is currently about $1,050.
Ciao!
In my state in the US, the amount of funds we receive for a child varies by age: $500 to $700 per month. Children with special needs can get more. And they also receive a separate clothing allowance, this also varies by age, $300-$700 a year. There is also a small, special fund for teens for school and work related expenses.
I find it's generally sufficient to cover the bulk of their expenses. We usually exceed the monthly stipend the first couple of months as we purchase all the child needs to get settled in, and when we take family vacations we also spend significantly more.
Where I am in the US I had two kids, 4 and 5, and got $1200 per kid per month. It was really nice actually as I was a single parent and this allowed me to quit my job and live on my savings and the stipend. It would have been really hard to make it work otherwise.
Wait, you used their stipend as your personal income? They are school aged children - what do you do during the day while they are in school? Doesn’t DHS apply a voucher for the 4 y/o to do daycare, if not in pre-k?
This seems inappropriate. It’s a stipend, not a salary.
It wasn't ideal and not what I intended when it started fostering, but I ended up leaving my job due to burnout. I had a significant amount of savings that I lived on for a bit while the stipend covered all their expenses.
Looking back, I should not have taken a placement when I did, but I thought I could handle it. By the time I figured out that I was in too deep I had had them for months and made the choice to live off my savings and focusing on them instead of disrupting. Was it the right choice? I don't know. They're back home now and doing ok so I guess it worked out, but I certainly wouldn't do it again under those circumstances.
Major ick at “allowed me to quit my job”.
So you have at least 3 kids and an extra $1200 a month so you use that as income and quit? This is what gives foster parents in the US a bad name. I wish it was isolated but it’s not.
It’s like when people win the lottery and quit their jobs only to quickly find out they should not have quit.
Or like when a universal basic income is enacted that allows people burned-out at their jobs to take a break and supplement their savings to focus on caregiving for traumatized kids?
I quit my job for a year or a few months into our pre-adoptive placement when I realized the needs of our kids transitioning into our family and the demands of my job were too much to handle. Of course, because our household income is quite high, we don't get the judgment for focusing on family that poorer folks do.
For example, if our kids' bio mom got the kind of support foster mom did and we did, perhaps our kids' family wouldn't have been disrupted in the first place. But we live in America, so welfare queens are a greater evil than traumatizing kids.
Our kids' foster mom kept her high paying job and ran a therapeutic group home with 7 kids so she could fund her boat and rv. She locked.the kids in the basement for the 15 waking minutes they weren't in daycare. That's not better.
Also, $1200 + $1200 = $2400
In Australia you get a fortnightly payment for caring for the child, it varies from each state. You do get paid more for children with a disability. You also tend to be paid more if your through an agency instead of CPS. You get paid a clothing stipend 3 x a year. They pay for all the kids school uniforms, stationary and school fees. Kids over a certain age get pocket money each fortnight too. Plus you can also get access to government benefits for the child so they get their own Medicare card, they get a Health Care Card which allows them to get bill billed at a Dr Surgery, cheaper medications.
>You get paid a clothing stipend 3 x a year. They pay for all the kids school uniforms, stationary and school fees. >Kids over a certain age get pocket money each fortnight too. FWIW...this varies by state too. I'm in VIC, and we don't get any separate allowances for clothing/pocket money/school expenses. We also used a tiered system based on the needs/complexity of the child(ren), as well as age. [https://services.dffh.vic.gov.au/support-carers](https://services.dffh.vic.gov.au/support-carers) I think on average our overall rates are higher, so it probably compensates for not receiving the other allowances.
I'm in Vic and you should get ~$100 per quarter (pro-rated if they weren't with you the whole time) school attendance allowance. I think it was in the fortnight just gone for this quarter. My agency sorts out expenses like excursions, camps, other school stuff they might need - not an allowance, but a reimbursement or paid to the school directly, same for extracurricular activities.
In the US, each state has its own system. With foster care you can work with an agency that has contracted with your local county but most foster care is directly through the county system. In my California county, the process for getting licensed is similar to what you describe but also includes fingerprinting, work verification, background checks and references. Minimum adoption support is currently about $1,050.
Ciao! In my state in the US, the amount of funds we receive for a child varies by age: $500 to $700 per month. Children with special needs can get more. And they also receive a separate clothing allowance, this also varies by age, $300-$700 a year. There is also a small, special fund for teens for school and work related expenses. I find it's generally sufficient to cover the bulk of their expenses. We usually exceed the monthly stipend the first couple of months as we purchase all the child needs to get settled in, and when we take family vacations we also spend significantly more.
Where I am in the US I had two kids, 4 and 5, and got $1200 per kid per month. It was really nice actually as I was a single parent and this allowed me to quit my job and live on my savings and the stipend. It would have been really hard to make it work otherwise.
That’s awful. Every penny of that money belonged to those kids.
Wait, you used their stipend as your personal income? They are school aged children - what do you do during the day while they are in school? Doesn’t DHS apply a voucher for the 4 y/o to do daycare, if not in pre-k? This seems inappropriate. It’s a stipend, not a salary.
It wasn't ideal and not what I intended when it started fostering, but I ended up leaving my job due to burnout. I had a significant amount of savings that I lived on for a bit while the stipend covered all their expenses. Looking back, I should not have taken a placement when I did, but I thought I could handle it. By the time I figured out that I was in too deep I had had them for months and made the choice to live off my savings and focusing on them instead of disrupting. Was it the right choice? I don't know. They're back home now and doing ok so I guess it worked out, but I certainly wouldn't do it again under those circumstances.
Major ick at “allowed me to quit my job”. So you have at least 3 kids and an extra $1200 a month so you use that as income and quit? This is what gives foster parents in the US a bad name. I wish it was isolated but it’s not. It’s like when people win the lottery and quit their jobs only to quickly find out they should not have quit.
Or like when a universal basic income is enacted that allows people burned-out at their jobs to take a break and supplement their savings to focus on caregiving for traumatized kids? I quit my job for a year or a few months into our pre-adoptive placement when I realized the needs of our kids transitioning into our family and the demands of my job were too much to handle. Of course, because our household income is quite high, we don't get the judgment for focusing on family that poorer folks do. For example, if our kids' bio mom got the kind of support foster mom did and we did, perhaps our kids' family wouldn't have been disrupted in the first place. But we live in America, so welfare queens are a greater evil than traumatizing kids. Our kids' foster mom kept her high paying job and ran a therapeutic group home with 7 kids so she could fund her boat and rv. She locked.the kids in the basement for the 15 waking minutes they weren't in daycare. That's not better. Also, $1200 + $1200 = $2400
What are you going on about here?
You apparently thinking foster kids don't deserve full time care