KEVIN Drinkwater informs us that foster carers earn £370 per week for one child, ie £19,240.00 per year.

According to the Office for National Statistics the average earnings for 2015 in the UK is £26,500.00 (£509.61 per week). In Redditch in 2013 the average household income was £36,889 per year ie; £709.40 per week.

(Worcestershire.gov.uk). Even if 100 per cent of this statistic is for two incomes, that still equates to over £350 per person.

He then goes on to say that he does not know of ‘any hard working people’ who earn that sort of money.

This statement shows his complete ignorance of what fostering entails.

I fostered teenagers for ten years and it is a 24/7 job. Apart from the day to day work of caring for young people with complex needs and challenging behaviour, there are written records to be kept and meetings to attend.. There is also the family of the child/ren to deal with, who are quite often hostile to anybody caring for their child/ren.

This only scratches the surface of what is involved.

Out of whatever payment is received (and Mr Drinkwater doesn’t tell us the source of the £370 figure he quotes, but it is, incidentally, far less than the cost of placing a child in a children’s home), like all working people, tax and national insurance have to be paid.

Foster carers are self employed.

The child has to be fed, clothed, kept warm and other expenses such as school trips etc have to be paid for, all out of (according to Mr Drinkwater) this magnificent sum.

After ten years of fostering I retired from it and went back to regular work. Oh, what joy! I worked my allotted time and went home to a house that was as I left it, without damage or teenage mess. I could have friends and family stay overnight without them having to be police checked. In short, I reclaimed my life.

Mr Drinkwater insults all those very hard-working people caring for children who in many cases have led traumatic lives before entering the care system. If the sum he quotes is broken down to the hours worked, I think he would find that most foster carers earn well below the minimum wage.

From my own experience I can tell him they earn every single penny of whatever they get.

Fran Shuckburgh

Redditch