Tasmanian grandparents and other kin who are the primary carers for kids say a $1000 government support payment would be beneficial for Christmas expenses, but the ultimate goal would be ongoing financial assistance.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Some kinship carers of kids whose parents are unable to care for them currently receive no financial assistance from the state, which is contrary to the experience in other jurisdictions.
For example, in Western Australian (WA) the state government recently upped its Grandparent Support Scheme, paying all primary care grandparents $1000 per child in their care.
Kin Raising Kids Tasmania secretary Frank Tyers said a national approach to kinship carer support was preferred, and moves were afoot to develop a group to advocate for a consistent approach across states.
Of WA's payments, he said it was an "awkward" policy, which excluded non-grandparent, primary kin carers.
"$1000 would obviously be appreciated by all kinship carers, particularly the informal ones," he said.
"[But] I don't know if $1000 would be of any real benefit, except maybe at Christmas time ... they need about a quarter of that every week. If they could get that every month, that would help."
Communities Tasmania have no plans to consider or implement policy such as WA's Grandparent Support Scheme, but a spokesman referred to its 2020 commitments to informal carers.
"As part of its commitment to deliver improved support for informal kinship carers and avoid children unnecessarily entering out of home care, the government commissioned an independent review of informal kinship care arrangements.
"The government has provided $2.25 million over four years to implement the review recommendations to ensure kinship carers receive better support...this is in addition to the government's current investment of $1.2 million per year to the Informal Kinship Care Program, formally Grandchildren Living with Grandparents."
He said support from the recommendations includes increased brokerage funds, training support, community based respite, establishment of a Liaison Support Service pilot [and] development of an information portal for informal kinship carers."
Mr Tyers said advice support was welcome, but Kin Raising Kids would continue to advocate for financial support for informal carers.
"Anything monetary ultimately has to happen, and we keep pushing to try and get some form of assistance for informal carers. That group [for example] didn't get any support at all during Covid."
