Bremen: A City to Explore - Foster parents could be entitled to a pay equivalent to parental leave sum.
From August in Bremen, families who adopt a child will receive a payment resembling parental leave. This new initiative is aimed at attracting more foster parents, especially for infants and toddlers, as per a plan for the social affairs committee. The committee approved this project on Thursday. Following approval, the project can commence in August.
As per the Social Department's plan, foster parents can apply for parental leave for the first year after accepting a child. The payment of 850 euros per month is meant to partially make up for the income loss that parents experience during parental leave. This money will be given along with the regular flat-rate foster allowance of approximately 1900 euros per month.
The impetus for this project arises from the scarcity of foster homes and families for infants and toddlers in Bremen. The special payment is intended to make the initial year with a foster child more manageable and provide financial security to families with a foster child. The Social Department claims that experiences from Hannover with a similar project reveal that a parental leave-like payment can enhance the willingness to take in a foster child.
The document from the committee indicates that foster parents receive around 33,000 euros in the first year of fostering with the new benefit. Conversely, placing a child in an institution is significantly more expensive, at roughly 89,000 euros.
[Note: This translation is not perfect, but it captures the essential meaning of the original text.]
