‘Link allowances to true cost of care’

Maintenance allowances should reflect the “true costs” of caring
for a child, according to the deputy minister for education and
young people in Scotland.

Euan Robson told the Scottish parliament last week that guidance
had already been issued to local authorities giving them
“considerable flexibility” to decide what allowances to pay
carers.

But MSP John Swinburne claimed that kinship carers received little
financial or professional support, highlighting 3,000 such cases in
Glasgow alone.

In September last year, the Family Rights Group published a report
calling for kinship carers to be paid a state benefit reflecting
the costs of bringing up a child.