Ms Catherine Bond:

It is the view of IFCA that child benefit should follow the child and that when a child moves into foster care, the payment for the child should go with him or her, particularly for the initial costs. We often hear foster carers say they have to buy a bicycle, for instance, to enable a child to go to school if it is some distance away, and there are the set-up costs associated with a new baby coming into the home. We are strongly of the view that child benefit should go with the child from the day he or she moves into a placement.

In regard to relative care and those private fostering arrangements, we certainly need to look at the issue. These children do not sit within child welfare and protection or within children in care, and the families who care for them are under severe pressure, even in regard to something as basic as giving consent for the children to go on school trips, because they are not the legal guardians of those children. It is an area IFCA has raised previously and we request it be looked into in detail and will be happy to assist the committee on that.

Certainly, child benefit is designed for children and should follow the child.