Goward must reverse heartless cuts
Posted: Tuesday, 21 February 2012 | By: Barbara Perry
After another graceless performance in Question Time, Pru Goward is under mounting pressure to reverse her two most heartless decisions – cutting Government funding for elderly people's spectacles and foster parents who adopt the child in their care.
"Minister Goward – last week, you backed down on slashing foster carer allowances by $212 a week – it's time to revisit two more of your dreadful decisions," Shadow Minister for Family and Community Services Barbara Perry said today.
"Please reinstate the post-adoption allowance that you slashed from $16,000 to just $1500 a year – and kindly restore funding to Visioncare so 26,000 elderly pensioners can access spectacles.
"The O'Farrell Government's cut to the Visioncare program effectively robs 26,000 elderly of spectacles – making it harder to read and easier to trip down the stairs. This is a vital frontline program that must remain above politics.
"In addition, I cannot understand the rationale behind cutting the allowance from $16,000 to $1500 per year for foster parents who commence adoption in 2012.
"Adoption of children who cannot in any circumstances stay with their family is by far the best option – and paying adequate post-adoption allowances is critical.
"Foster carers don't adopt for the money – but it is critical that Governments make it a realistic option. Very often, carers are adopting children with histories of abuse and neglect who need expensive psychological and medical support.
"The research also proves that providing financial incentives for foster parents to adopt saves money in the long run. Boston Consulting, commissioned in 2009 by the NSW Government, found that every a time a child was adopted, taxpayers saved $16,000 a year because the child did not require expensive Government-run out-of-home care and caseworker support.
"NSW adoptions by foster carers increased threefold after Labor introduced the post-adoption allowance in 2008 – from 16 in 2006/7 to 48 in 2009/10.
"It's a myth that she's making savings by slashing the allowances. It is simply short-sighted policy which will undermine permanency planning to the great detriment of children who have already had an unequal start in life."
*Boston Consulting Group, September 2009, NSW Government Out of Home Care Review, C.82
Tags: adoption, Barbara Perry, Barry O'Farrell, cuts, elderly, health, John Robertson, Pru Goward, vision impaired, VisionCare