Wherein her dad admits to having enough money to cover quite substantial expenses (over £130k's worth)
In Bromley the weekly fostering allowance for looking after a teenager is nearly double the figure awarded in Southend. Such discrepancies are duplicated all over the UK, a situation the government wants to rectify. But will the new rate be enough, asks Katie Leason
www.communitycare.co.uk
The family lives in a five-bedroom house, after
investing £30,000 to build extra rooms when they made the decision to foster. Living in a larger property means that they now pay almost
double the rate of counciltax they would have done otherwise, as well as
more for heating and lighting. The family has also had to buy a
seven-seater car so that they can all fit in – but of course having a bigger car costs more to insure and fill up with fuel.
“It comes out of my pocket as the foster allowance doesn’t cover it,” he says. David has done a rough calculation of how much he thinks he has spent on fostering.
“I’ve probably paid out
£100,000 over the 14 years. Fostering is an expensive business and if we didn’t foster our circumstances would be very different – I would have to find a lot less money every month. I make no complaint because I volunteered for the task and have had many happy times, but I thought the cost of fostering would be met by the local authority and have found out to my cost that’s not the case. It’s like going to work and me taking the fire engine down to the petrol station and paying on my card.”