Young Carers Given Funding Boost
31 March 2015 at 10:11 am
The Abbott Government will provide 150 extra scholarships for young carers in an attempt to get them back into school.
After completing the final leg of the 500km Pollie Pedal, an event that raises money for Carers Australia, in Launceston, Tony Abbott announced that he would provide funding for more bursaries to help young carers.
Abbott said the Young Carer Bursary Programme allowed carers up to 25-years-old to continue study or vocational training.
He said a further 150 bursaries would be funded by the Government at a cost of $450,000.
“Too often, carers sacrifice their education,” Abbott said.
“Carers Australia received 800 applications for bursaries this year. In response to this high demand, the Government will provide a further 150 bursaries worth a total of $450,000 – on top of the 150 bursaries already announced.”
Abbott said the Government would also provide Carers Australia with $50,000 to support the delivery of the bursaries.
“There are more than 300,000 young carers aged under 25 years in Australia who look after people with disability, people with physical or mental health issues, or older people in need of help,” he said.
“These young people are likely to live in single parent, low-resource households.
“Many young carers come from Indigenous and culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds.”
Assistant Minister for Social Services, Mitch Fifield, said young carers needed more support.
“[Carers] have to juggle study, often part time work, and their caring responsibilities, and too often, something has to give and too often the thing that gives is their study,” Senator Fifield said.
“So we as a Government wanted to do something practical to support young carers and we announced before the last election that we would have a $3 million programme over three years to introduce young carer bursaries, which will provide support to young carers for things such as a laptop, or course fees, or books. The money goes to the student and they can use that in the way that they think best.
“$3,000 for each eligible young carer student. It’s a small token of the community’s appreciation for the work that young carers do and we hope that the additional 150 young carer bursaries will make a difference in the lives of young carers and help them to continue either their school study, or their post-secondary study.”
