Inmate Subsidy

Alternative Names

• Capitation Grant (also known as)

Inmate subsidy and capitation grants were terms used to describe the amount paid by the government to organisations that provided out-of-home care to children. For most of the twentieth century the amounts paid to Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal children differed. In his 1959 Annual Report (pp.8-9), the Commissioner of Native Welfare said that weekly subsidy payments had risen from 3 shillings per week per child in 1949 to 22 shillings and sixpence per child in 1953 but that 'pressure was still being maintained to reach parity with the Child Welfare subsidy payable in respect to white children'. The Commissioner reported that parity had finally been achieved by 1 December 1954 'after five years of effort'. At that time, the weekly subsidy for all children in subsidised institutions was 35s. 9d.