FOI documents reveal the Marshall Liberal Government stopped foster and kinship support payments last September – but told carers they were still processing claims.
Under the DCP Exceptional Resource Funding Procedure carers have been entitled to apply for home and car modifications to assist them to care for multiple children.
For eight months, the Opposition has been raising a number of rejected applications from foster carers with the Department of Child Protection.
On 30 January this year, the Minister for Child Protection Rachel Sanderson stated the applications were still being assessed on a “case by case basis.”
Through a lengthy Freedom of Information investigation, secret documents have been revealed including a directive to staff from the Chief Financial Officer on 27 September 2018 stating:
“... all applications associated with home modifications / extensions / alterations and the purchasing of vehicles will not be approved, effective immediately.”
That directive remains in force.
The funding is intended to ensure that sibling groups remain together and that more children are placed in foster and kinship care, rather than residential care which costs over $540 000 a year per child.
Quotes attributable to Shadow Minister for Child Protection Jayne Stinson
Foster and kinship carers have been deceived by the Minister in a deliberate attempt to conceal budget cuts that affect carers’ capacity to look after vulnerable children.
These payments are designed to help carers take on additional children in need – and stop kids from ending up in residential care homes at a cost of more than half a million dollars a year.
Minister Rachel Sanderson needs to start telling the truth about her Department’s actions and provide the financial support carers need to care for at-risk children.