GPV/KCV is committed to amplifying the voices of kinship care families within government, improving the visibility of kinship carers and raising understanding of carer families and carers’ roles.
GPV/KCV calls for:
- The Victorian Government to increase the allowance to kinship carers to ensure parity with the allowance paid to foster carers
- The Victorian government to increase the Carer Allowance and for DFFH strengthen the Care Allowance assessment and payment processes to ensure assessments are conducted thoroughly and annually or as needs arise, and that equitable financial support is provided
- Provision, by the Australian Government, of free medicines for all children and young people in out of home care
- Review and extension, by the Victorian Government, of the benefits attached to the Victorian Carer Card
Millions of Australians set to get boost in welfare payments from Centrelink
Australians on social security are set to receive more money in their pockets when payments are indexed.
Those on the age pension, disability support pension and carer payment will pocket an extra $19.60 for singles and $29.40 for couples combined each fortnight, come 20 March.
The maximum rate of the pension will go up to $1,116.30 for singles and $1,682.80 for couples each fortnight, when including the pension and energy supplements.
People on rent assistance, JobSeeker, single parenting payments and ABSTUDY will also receive an uptick in their payments.
An extra 77,000 parents are on a higher payment rate after eligibility was expanded to cover parents with a youngest child under 14 instead of eight in the last budget.
The single parenting payment will go up by $17.50 a fortnight.
Single JobSeeker recipients with no kids, and people over 22 on ABSTUDY, will get an extra $13.50 per fortnight.
Each member of a couple will get an additional $12.30 per fortnight.
Income and assets limits for the payments will also be increased in line with indexation on 20 March.
Indexation is an important measure to ensure welfare recipients have more money in their pockets, Social Services Minister Amanda Rishworth said.
“Our number one priority is addressing inflation and cost of living pressures,” she said.
“Pension recipients are some of the most vulnerable members of our communities, many having worked all their lives contributing to our society or caring for a loved one.”
The complete list of payments increasing on 20 March 2024, including income and asset limits, can be found on the Department of Social Services website
Care and Protection Green Paper
Prepared by Caring Families Aoteareo – 2023
This report discusses the performance of New Zealand’s care and protection system and outlines proposals to make the system work better. It has been prepared by Caring Families Aotearoa, an organisation which represents the interests of caregivers and the children and young people they care for.
The care and protection system is the set of policies and institutions that are designed to look after children and young people who are not able to live with their parents for reasons of safety.
To download a PDF of the paper, click here
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GPA/GPV has written an open letter in response to the Breaking Barriers report released by the Australian government’s standing Committee on Social Policy and Legal Affairs on 27 November 2018.
To read the full letter, click here.
In August, the GPV/KCV Board decided to write to all federal members of parliament to outline concerns with the approach to adoption being taken in NSW. Of particular concern was the move to advertise children for adoption on a website. The GPV/KCV Board held firm to its view that it is not appropriate to fast-track adoption and that all options for keeping children within their biological family must be exhausted before they are placed outside the family.
GPV/KCV also lodged a submission to the Law Reform Commission’s review of adoption legislation in Victoria.
This campaign is designed to put pressure on the government and DHHS to make the placement of children with family members a priority, and to remove adoption by strangers from the hierarchy of options for out-of-home care.
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Raise the Age Campaign
The newly elected ACT Government has committed to change the law and raise the minimum age of criminal responsibility!
When the state and territory Attorneys-General met on 29 July 2020 they made the disappointing decision to ignore overwhelming evidence that raising the age will give Australian kids a better chance at life. They said children as young as 10 years old might have to wait another 12 months before politicians would decide whether or not to do the right thing.
The ACT Government has shown what’s possible!
Children across Australia should be in schools and playgrounds, not prison cells. As the ACT Government has shown leadership, every other state and territory government must follow suit and change their laws so that children are no longer hauled before courts and locked away in jails.
Here’s what you can do:
- Build momentum by encouraging your family and friends to sign onto the petition here at raisetheage.org.au
We won’t stop until we have #RaisedTheAge in every state and territory in Australia
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GPA/GPV/KCV* believes that everyone has the right to a life free from poverty. We are concerned about the inadequacy of the Jobseeker (formerly Newstart) Payment and how this inadequacy affects many informal kinship carers.
The Senate Community Affairs References Committee report on the ‘Adequacy of Newstart and related payments found that ‘the income support system is not meeting its objective of ensuring a minimum standard of living for working-age jobseekers, as too many are living in poverty’.
The current rate of the JobSeeker Payment (prior to the coronavirus supplement – see below), has not been increased in real terms in 26 years. As a result, more than half of all households receiving Jobseeker or Youth Allowance as their main source of income, including many with children, are living in poverty. Our safety net is failing to catch those most in need.
The far-reaching impacts of persistently inadequate payment rates are now exacerbated by the coronavirus crisis. Federal parliament recognised this and passed legislation to provide a coronavirus supplement of $275 per week on top of existing payments including Jobseeker Payment, Parenting Payment and others from 27 April for a period of six months
*Grandparents Australia, Kinship Carers Victoria & Grandparents Victoria
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