People caring for some of New Zealand's toughest youngsters in state children's homes are being paid welfare benefits because the Government refuses to pay them wages.
The house-parents who run the 55 family homes for the Department of Child, Youth and Family sign a contract to work "on a fully voluntary and unremunerated basis".
But in at least one case, the department advised house-parents in writing when they took over a family home in 1997 to see their local Work and Income office to apply for a benefit.
The immediate past-president of the Auckland Foster Care Association, John Duke, said most family home house-parents - including himself - went on benefits because their youngsters were too difficult for one person in a couple to handle alone.
He said the closure of most large boys' and girls' homes, which took the toughest youngsters, left family homes with people from the justice system or with severe behaviour problems.
Carers for troubled youngsters forced on to benefits
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