Submissions

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From: Anne Stewart, ILC Training [mailto:educ@ilcnsw.asn.au]

Sent: Tuesday, 13 September 2005 12:25 PM

To: Family Responsibilities

Subject: My response to the Striking the Balance discussion paper

Unfortunately, many recent policies developed and implemented by this Federal government assume that today's family unit remains the traditional model of a Mum and Dad raising two children.

 

Again, fortunately or unfortunately, depending on your perspective, this is now not the case in the majority of cases. Families are now a blend of the traditional and increasingly the lone parent scenario.

 

My case is typical of many Lone parents and as a sole mother it is shameful how we are discriminated against because we have made the CHOICE to work on a part-time basis. As we attempt to juggle making ALL the parenting, financial, house-cleaning, shopping, cooking, sporting activities (1 practice per week + 1 game per week), music lessons, washing, ironing, parent & teacher interviews, actively participate in the school community, cultural performance group practice, work (Project Officer) duties and decisions......and try to have some semblance of a social life along with attempting to spend quality time with my child when I'm not too exhausted.

 

My ex-partner has almost no contact with his daughter and I have very limited family support due to an ageing and disabled parent.

I am usually happy to perform these tasks and I am often complimented on what an intelligent, well adjusted and beautiful daughter I have.

 

However, the recent changes to the Parenting Pension which are due to come into effect in July 2006 are of great concern to me and should be to the entire community.  According to one report I have recently read this pension will be reduced by $86.00 per fortnight at the end of this financial year.

 

This will prove devastating to MANY, MANY recipients of this benefit - the vast majority of whom are women.

 

I have been receiving, in the main, a partial Centrelink pension for the past 12 years . This is due to the fact that not to do so i.e. to attempt to exist on the basic parenting allowance without working, is to barely exist and to hover on or just above the poverty line. You are now denied even that choice due to new return-to-work criteria.

 

Fortunately,  I became a public housing tenant six years ago (after being on the waiting list for 7 years) and do not pay the outrageous rents which the majority of lone parents are forced to pay. And there in lays my conundrum - I am stuck in a classic Catch 22 situation which is in the main not of my own making but that of short-sighted government departments on both state and federal levels. 

 

If I earn too much income and lose the partial parenting payment I currently receive, I will lose many of its associated benefits eg subsidised rent, access to low cost pharmaceutical prescriptions, assistance with car registration costs to name a few. And to earn enough income to cover these additional expenses I would need to work on a full-time basis and leave my young daughter aged 12 years to come home alone each afternoon after school and to supervise her own homework, find her own way to softball practice (or miss out) - not to mention the lack of parental supervision at this pivotal stage of her development.

 

I am simply not prepared to risk not only her personal safety but to undo all my previous commitment to raising a responsible and  caring young adult who will contribute to her generation's AND THIS NATION'S FUTURE.    

 

Often I am made to feel I am being punished by the various government departments I am forced to deal with. I am uncertain of my  perceived offence - perhaps it is that I have the temerity to want to be a good STAY AT HOME mum! That I should be out there working like everyone else. Or perhaps it is their collective perception that all sole mother's are teenagers, ripping off the welfare system.

 

Since becoming a sole parent and the realisation that my fairy-tale, happy ever after relationship had failed and that I had a young baby to support, I have furthered my education by completing a Cert IV in Training, a Tourism Diploma and a BA - positioning myself to commence a full-time job when the time comes. In the interim, I am gaining significant work experience and hope to one day purchase my own home.  But in the mean time, it is my intention to continue being there for my beautiful daughter and single-handedly bearing the brunt of my at times, colossally challenging fiscal decision. 

 

I worry for the majority of women (and some men) who are going to be denied even this impoverished choice due to the perceptions of this draconian government and its small-minded, short sighted and reactive policies.   

      

regards,

Anne Stewart

Project Officer, ILC Training