Grandparents raising their grandchildren have recently faced a massive cut to their income, making them even more vulnerable.

Grandparent carers are those forced to start over, to save their grandchildren - often from a life of abuse and neglect. Most rely entirely on the Carer's pensions, which is under threat from Government cuts.

Since January 1, carers like Carol Mills have faced the prospect of losing up to $200 a fortnight in Government funding. Her son was a heroin addict, so fifteen years ago she was given custody of her granddaughter Carmen.

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“She came into my care when she was two-days-old. I brought her home from the hospital, and have had her ever since,” Mills said.

“It scares me that I won’t be able to give her all she needs. This is just the time when I need (the money) the most. She will be going into year eleven next year, and I don’t want her to leave school early.”

Marie Lethbridge has raised nine grandchildren. The youngest are twins, just six-years-old, and the eldest is twenty.

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“It is hard in lots of ways, but in other ways the main reason I do it is because I have got the kids, and they are altogether, and they have got someone,” she said.

“You get into a routine where you have to try and budget to what you have to do, and if you can’t budget, because it all gets chopped and changed, it makes it difficult.”

Squeezed into a three bedroom house they make do, but any deductions from her fortnightly allowance would be a massive blow.

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“I’ve got one bathroom. I have four people in one bedroom, three in another, and two in another. It is a bit difficult,” Lethbridge said.

The home Gavin Breen and his grandson Dylan live in is about to be condemned.

Dylan was brutally abused as a baby, so Gavin had no choice but to step in. Now he worries a cut in Government assistance will see them both on the streets

“It is going to make life so much harder for us. What money I get from the State Government now basically pays for the roof over our head,” Gavin said.

Like other carers, Gavin lives on a Federal Family Tax Benefit plus a State Government allowance. Those payments change from state to state, and for the age of the child in care.

Fortnightly assistance for a ten-year-old child:

• Queensland - $441
• Victoria i- $273
• ACT - $486
• WA - $381
• NSW - $475

But in a penny-pinching exercise the new State Government ruled the allowance would be reduced by $212 once a child reaches sixteen.

“We were faced with a really tough budget, and the Youth Allowance changes we made was a very small amount of money in the overall black hole we had to fill,” NSW Minister for Family and Community Services, Pru Goward said.

Up until yesterday there was no changing the policy, and the cuts would remain. But 24 hours after we brought the issue up with the Minister, the backflip that these Aussie battlers hoped for came.

“We knew we had to do better with adolescent care, and the changes we made on January 1. We recognised we needed to give another payment to focus foster carers and the children on staying at school,” Minister Goward said.

Contact details

• Samaritans - www.samaritans.org.au
• Council on the Aging NSW - www.cotansw.com.au

This reporter is on Twitter at @maddykennard