08/10/2019
The Department for Child Protection provides family-based carers with a support payment to help them meet the costs of caring for a child or young person.
We recently increased these payments by 2.5%, in line with the set rate of indexation. This increase came into effect on 1 October 2019 and applies to foster carers, kinship carers and specific child only carers.
The new rates can be found on the carer support payments page.
What payments have increased?
The following rates are affected by this increase:
- basic subsidy
- special needs loadings
- placement start up
- education grants.
Rates for specialist placements remain the same, in line with existing contract arrangements.