LMP demands immediate payment increase to foster parents

Opposition LMP calls for immediately raising the pay of foster parents and adjusting their allowances to the rate of inflation, the party’s spokesperson for welfare and family policy said on Sunday.

“There is a shortage of foster parents in the Hungarian system, totaling only 5,400 according to Central Statistical Office figures, two-thirds of whom are based in towns and villages with fewer than 5,000 inhabitants. And there are 400 foster parents who care for six children,” Krisztina Hohn told a press conference.

Foster parents are entitled to receive a basic pay and allowance of 54,000 forints (EUR 142) per child in a normal case. If they care for a child with special needs, they receive 62,000 forints per month, she said.

The pay foster parents receive is extremely low despite a recent increase of 25 percent, Hohn said, arguing that the rate had not kept pace with inflation.

“Poverty now also affects children raised by foster parents in many places, which is unacceptable because the state must provide for those children,” said Hohn.

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