'A home for life': Adopting parents to be paid almost $38,000 under new NSW scheme

Parents who adopt a child could be paid nearly $38,000 a year under a new incentive to be introduced by the NSW Government to assist some of our most vulnerable children.

Premier Gladys Berejiklian is set to announce the measure that will see ongoing allowances paid to families who take in and care for children aged from infants to teens, News Corp reports.

The new scheme to be announced Wednesday would see parents who take in a child aged from 0-4 paid $488 every fortnight while families who take in a teenager would receive an allowance of $738.

Parents who adopt children with special needs would be paid even more, with allowances reaching up to $37,896 a year.

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The scheme would be means tested with payment available to those who qualify for Family Tax Benefit A, according to the Daily Telegraph.

Premier Berejiklian and Family and Community Services (FACS) Minister Pru Goward are set to announce the $90 million scheme that will be funded over four years, targeting 900 children living in out-of-home care.

Currently in NSW there are about 19,000 young people living in foster and group homes but adoption numbers are on the rise.

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FACS is on track to see 100 children adopted by the end of this year, a record number and nearly a 50 per cent increase on the 68 adopted in the 2015-16 financial year.

Ms Goward said she hoped the number of yearly adoptions would rise into the "hundreds", but said there was a financial disincentive for foster parents to formally adopt.

Currently foster parents are paid a fortnightly allowance but those payments cease once the child is adopted.

Some children can live in 10 homes by the time they turn 18.

“We know that when children are in a permanent home for life they have much better outcomes,” Ms Goward said.

Newsbreak – March 29