Support Payments for Single Parents To Be Extended: PM

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese speaks to media during a press conference at the Kaarta Gar-up Lookout in Perth, Australia, on May 8, 2023. AAP Image/Matt Jelonek

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has confirmed that the Australian government will spend $1.9 billion (US$1.3 billion) over the next three years to expand the support payments scheme that is offered to single parents.

Currently, the Parenting Payment Single (PPS) can only be accessed by parents whose youngest children are up to 8-years-old, transfering onto JobSeeker after the youngest dependent child turns eight.

The federal budget will raise that cut off to 14 years of age which the government argues will better enable single parents to take on paid employment as children 14 and over require less supervision.

The prime minister, who is a product of a single-parent household, said that the changes coming up in the budget will “make a big and immediate difference for tens of thousands of mums, dads and children right across Australia.”

“Single parents carry the world on their backs. They sacrifice so much to give their children a better life,” he said. “This is about giving them the greater security and better support they deserve.”

“What that will do is to make sure that women, in particular, but also fathers in situations of raising children by themselves, can have that sense of security, that children can be looked after,” he told reporters in Perth.

“They’re deserving of more support.”

Single Parents Still Required to Study, Train or Maintain Work Connections

The federal government argues that the largest group to benefit from these changes will be single mothers, who make up 90 percent of the claimants of the scheme.

Single parents, from Sept. 20, 2023, who were scheduled to move to JobSeeker will now continue to receive the higher support, with a current base rate of $922.10 per fortnight, which is 95 percent of the Age Pension, until their youngest child turns 14.

Additionally, those who are currently eligible under the new scheme but at present are receiving JobSeeker will get an increase to payments of $176.90 per fortnight.

However, the federal government will still require those receiving the payments to participate in employment, study or training and maintain connections with the labour force so they can return to work when their children are older.

“Our Budget is all about helping families deal with day-to-day financial pressures while creating more economic security for them over the long term. This change extends that support to some of the families who need it the most, the federal government said in a media release on Monday.

Critics Question Cut Off Age

However, critics of the government, including the Greens, have argued that the PPS cut-off age should be raised to 16 years.

The National Council of Single Mothers and their Children (CSMC) said they were disappointed that the cut of age was not 16, but were ecstatic it had been raised.

“Escatic that it is higher than 8 years. Relieved that it was not 12 years. Disappointed that we could not get it to 16 years,” CSMC said in a post on Facebook.

However, the prime minister told the press that the new age cut-off was a time when a child starts to get more independence.

“We think 14 is the right balance. Fourteen is the period in which a student starts to gain more independence, doesn’t need the same level of support at home that a younger child does,” he said.

“A 14-year-old starts to, in today’s world, start to move into that change into adulthood. And we think this is absolutely the right balance as well, where we want people who’ve been single parents, where it’s possible, to move into full-time employment over a period of time. By this change, you might see people then moving into at least some form of part-time employment.”

Finance Minister Katy Gallagher, who was a single parent, had previously told ABC Radio that the cut off age was recommended.

“I don’t think anyone would pretend that costs just end at any particular year,” Gallagher said.

“But I would say again that in terms of the parenting payment single, we are, you know, it’s been before us. It’s been before us through recommendations. There’s a range of views about what the appropriate response to it is.”

The governemnt argues that the Budget changes will provide additional financial support to at least 57,000 single principal carers, including 52,000 women.

Meanwhile, Nationals leader David Littleproud said the changes to payments needed to be examined in relation to the bigger budget picture.

“Obviously, the government’s made it clear they wanted to help those that are on social security payments to keep pace with inflation, even though there are indexed movements on that every six to 12 months,” he told Sky News Australia.

“We'll look at it in the totality ... and understanding who’s paying for it, because invariably it’s going to be regional Australia.