Foster Care Victoria

bowie23 · Posted: Thu Jun 21, 2007 9:14 am Post subject: Welfare To Work

For Australian carers...

From an edited statement by Helen Falconer, former carer and FCAV member.

THE BACKGROUND
Foster carers who are on income support/benefits and who are fostering children under 16, are exempt from the “looking for work” provisions of Welfare to Work. They also receive a higher Newstart Allowance (originally called Enhanced Newstart), which is equivalent to the Parenting Payment. The carers must be active and approved/accredited by their foster care agency or relevant state government department. They must also take proof of their status to their Centrelink office when requested.

The guidelines state: "Exemptions should only be granted to principal carer parents who are registered and active foster carers until the expiry of their registered and active status, and for no longer than 12 months at a time."

Hence foster carers also need to qualify as a principal carer to get the exemption. The definition used by Centrelink is: "Principal carer parents are defined as the principal carer of a dependent child under the age of 16". This is the part which appears to be a problem for some carers.

It would seem that foster carers who do not have the full-time physical care of a child/young person are not eligible for either the “looking for work” exemption, or the higher Newstart Allowance (NA). This is even if they are considered active and approved/accredited by their foster care agency and may be regularly providing care for foster children.

Problem:

It seems that not receiving Family Tax Benefit for a child/young person can be a trigger to override the exemption and the higher Newstart Allowance.

This then becomes a catch 22 situation. In Victoria, carers are asked not to apply for Family Tax Benefit (FTB) for the first three weeks of a new placement in case the child returns home to the birth family or goes to a kinship placement. In other cases, the carer may not be eligible for the full FTB when the child is transitioning home or to another placement.

Thus the carer is doubly penalised - s/he cannot apply for FTB for three weeks. In turn, Centrelink does not technically recognise that the child in the carer’s home because FTB is being claimed by another person. Furthermore, an application for Newstart Allowance is dependent on FTB being paid to the carer.

This is also a problem for carers who are awaiting a placement (even if it is planned), providing emergency/reception care, caring for a young person over 15 and/or on a break.

Foster care, by its nature, is unpredictable, with children coming into and out of care without a lot of prior notice. But by being available to take on this special role, the carer makes her/himself less attractive to take on paid employment. What employer would be prepared to accept - “Sorry, I can’t come in today - I have an emergency placement”?

We are very concerned that some carers are not able to get the exemptions from looking for work and higher NA that other foster carers have. This will result in carers being forced to stop fostering to look for work. We know that there is an overall decline in the number of carers and this just adds to the problem.

There will be a campaign this year to have a system in place which recognises that all foster carers, who are active (and therefore available for foster care placements) and approved/accredited by their foster care agencies are eligible for the “looking for work” exemption and the higher Newstart Allowance.

If you have had any problems with the Welfare to Work system, could you please contact the FCAV office (9489 9770 or admin@fcav.org ) so we can collect examples of these problems to use in the campaign. We have been able to help some carers who have been affected, but it is hard going.
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