Mad Love for Foster Parents

[Deborah]

The word here is "incentive". Government does not want to give poor people an incentive to have more kids and get money for doing that. In that light, it makes sense to pay someone else to do the job rather than reward people who have babies and can't afford them..

Yeh... makes sense to dole out more money to fosters and put the kid at higher risk of injury/death.  :rofl: Splitting up the family unit is not an incentive to prevent future pregnancies. In fact, could cause more, if the person wants a family and CPS keeps yanking their kids.

[Anonymous]

Hey, I don't make the rules. I'm just saying what a lot of government agencies are likely to think. Once you understand the absolute contempt they have for the needy (they figure most of what they pay to the birth parents will go to alcohol and drugs), their policies can be explained.

[Deborah]

Hey, I don't make the rules. I'm just saying what a lot of government agencies are likely to think. Once you understand the absolute contempt they have for the needy (they figure most of what they pay to the birth parents will go to alcohol and drugs), their policies can be explained.

Wrong. I understand their contempt, but No cash is paid to parents, ever. If they happen to qualify for food stamps they are given a credit card and there are strict limits on what can be purchased. A pre-set amount added each month to their account, provided they've filed all the ridiculous monthly paperwork involved. Screw up on the paperwork or file it late and you don't have benefits that month. If they qualify for housing subsidy it's paid directly to the landlord. Medical care, the doctor is paid directly from Medicaid. Get the picture? The gov't isn't doling out cash payments, except to foster parents, and certainly aren't paying for alcohol and drug use. Myths regarding welfare abound. While abuse can't be totally controlled, most of the welfare abuse these days is perpetrated by doctors, dentists, pharmaceutical companies, Section 8 slumlords, etc.

[exhausted]

Your government is obviously better educated than ours.....you can have as many kids as you like here and not be expected to work, money is put directly into your bank account for you to spend as you wish

[Karass]

Your government is obviously better educated than ours.....you can have as many kids as you like here and not be expected to work, money is put directly into your bank account for you to spend as you wish

That's one of the unfortunate side-effects of socialism -- it makes people fuckin lazy.

BTW, exhausted, what kind of help do you really want or expect to get from Social Services in the UK? Over here, many of us would rather have the government just leave us alone -- stay out of our bedrooms, our wallets, etc. Hence the humor in the phrase, "I'm from the government and I'm here to help you."

[Anonymous]

"I'm from the government and I'm here to help you."

Makes me think of New Orleans and Fema when good citizens from all over this country went down there with their boats only to find out the city was sealed and their help refused. Not only do they not help you, they stop other people from helping you when you need help and assume you are an armed criminal druggie piece of shit number.

[exhausted]

BTW, exhausted, what kind of help do you really want or expect to get from Social Services in the UK? Over here, many of us would rather have the government just leave us alone -- stay out of our bedrooms, our wallets, etc. Hence the humor in the phrase, "I'm from the government and I'm here to help you."

99% of parents would dread social services being in their lives, because once they're in, they don't go away, they can be pretty controlling

But as I said on another thread, without them, you're screwed, you can only get therapy, projects, help with parenting classes, getting the school/police to actually work with you instead of against you, referrals to assessments needed, mental health care and so on, if social services pull their weight with these various things, and in order to do so, you have to have them in your life, pretty grim I know, but it is the better option in the long run

It's the parents who do want them involved who are really worrying and care about their kids, it's the ones who don't care that will keep them at arms length as there seems to be some stigma attached to being under social services, i.e. you must be abusing your child, you can't cope with your child (so what? Not everyone can) and the worst of them all are the ones who don't want social services involved because they know they are going to have to actually parent....it's the main reason for not wanting them around

[White Cracker Man]

Deb, I am currently dealing with a Section 8 slumlord. Know all about that. From my view, I would say that ACS or whatever they are called view parents who's kids have been removed as not being as trustworty as the foster  parents.  I believe that is their reasoning for paying the foster parents and not the biological parents. Alot of times that is the case. Alot of times it is not. They should make their decisions on a case by case basis. Not that they would always make the right decision.Now, in regards to Medicaid and Section 8 and stuff like that, I do not understand their thinking.

[White Cracker Man]

In regards to how much foster parents get per child, it depends on the age of a child. An infant would need more than a ten year-old. I would estimate $550 for a child and $1000 for infants, toddlers. That would be monthly. I believe my foster mother got around $400  for me when I was with her from 92 to 94.I factored in inflation in my estimates.

[Froderik]

In regards to how much foster parents get per child, it depends on the age of a child. An infant would nee more than a ten year-old. I would estimate $550 for a child and $1000 for infants, toddlers. That would be monthly. I believe my foster mother got around $400 when I was with her from 92 to 94.I factored in inflation in my estimates.

How much of it do you think was actually spent on you?

[White Cracker Man]

Oh, very, very, little. I would estimate around $50 for most of the months. Also, I hardly had food that I liked. Most of the time, we had rice and beans or some nasty ass stew of some sort. Being that stuff like rice and beans can feed alot of people,  I would replace my estimate of $50 for most of the months to maybe ten dollars. Actually, I would change that estimate to $0 for most of the months considering that I hardly ate anything that I even remotely liked. I know for damn fucking sure the $400 or whatever was not to eat rice and beans and nasty ass stew almost every day. Actually, I hardly ate the beans, mostly just the rice. Lots of times I went to bed hungry.

[exhausted]

Your foster parents were shit

Don't they get checked up on?

Mine were horrible and only in it for the money but they never starved me or deprived me of al the things I needed

[White Cracker Man]

Well, I lived with a single mom with her two jack-off biological kids and 3 foster kids, about 2, 3, and 4. and later one infant. I told my biological mother, who told some social worker and the social worker told my foster mother but it did not change. Looking back, I should have put up a huge fuck. But the social worker did not even ask me about it. As for social workers visiting, they hardly did. They were supposed to come once a month or whatever but most of the time they had some excuse. Like I got stuck in traffic or I am stuck in court, or I completely forgot to come visit you. Also, and this something that I regret, my foster mom would beat the shit out of her foster kids one of whom was borderline retarded. These  foster kids came from totally fucked up backgrounds and to do that is violating them. Of course, even if they did not come from the fucked up backgrounds that they did, it is still violating them.Also, my foster mother later went on to adopt two of the three she abused along with maybe the infant. Not sure about the infant.And when the social worker came over as part of the adoption process, the worker did not talk to the kids or me. She just talked to my foster mother.If you wanna know why I failed to report the abuse, I honestly do not know why. As for the food situation, My foster mother was hispanic and most of the time they had spanish food for dinner, mostly rice and beans. I do like some spanish food but not alot. And of course all that is not relevant, she was getting fucking around $400 a month and could not even guarantee that I would have something to eat that I actually would want to eat. Another thing that pissed me off was that if i had my own money, she would not let me buy food that i like because she said i should eat what the rest of the family eats. And that it is not fair to her biological kids.Of course, it was not fair to me to go to bed fucking hungry.

[exhausted]

Ouch! No - you're right, kids should never feel hungry, at anytime of the day

I hope this woman isn't still a foster parent to this day - did you ever report her after you left?

[White Cracker Man]

Unfortunuately not, really dropped the ball there big time. The only good news is she stopped being a foster parent. The bad news is that she adopted two of the kids she abused and quite possibly a third that she got  about five months before I left her apartment to live with my biological mother.Last I heard she was planning to move to Tampa, Florida. That was back in early 99.I could not really tell you why I did not report it. It is hard for meto reconcile with myself about that. I can tell you that I actually visited her after going out of her home. I did so because my mother was drunk a tremendous amount of the time and I guess she was the only option to go to. And I did have friends there that lived in and around the building complex that my foster mother lived in.