Findings on solo parents’ problems

Press, 20 October 1976, Page 16

Findings on solo parents’ problems

The findings of a committee set up by the National Organisation of Women on solo parents, to consider such issues as benefits, maintenance, and relations with the Social Welfare Department, have been released recently in a report. The committee was set up following comments by the Minister of Social Welfare (Mr Walker) on March 24 on solo mothers living in de facto relationships. This is the first of : two articles on the findings and recommendations of the committee.

Social welfare legisla-i tion is thwarted in its 1 I original intent by being; .administered under pres-i ent guidelines, says an! i investigative committee ' I on solo parents set up by the National Organisation of Women. This has led the committee to make several I recommendations in the I areas of maintenance and benefits for solo parents in ; its recently released report. Several of the committee I members are solo parents, 1 and include also social . workers and a lawyer. Their I findings and recommendations are based on statistical information, previously i published reports, and firsthand knowledge after contact with solo parents. “Not only is support denied to those most in need, there is no differentiation between benefit policy towards beneficiaries remarrying, entering into de facto relationships or cohabiting on a regular basis,” says the committee. “Under present policies, the personal conduct of needy solo parents is regulated by the administration of the benefit, and depart-] mental guidelines that re-1 ! quire investigation into liv-j ing arrangements rather] ’than economic circum-l stances. “Our recommendations! then,” says the committee, “are designed to correct these defects, and to provide more incentive for the beneficiary to return to the work force, while being compatible with today’s national economic situation and with accepted social welfare principles.” Solo parents were identified as all parents taking sole responsibility for caring for children. This includes men and women, unmarried, divorced, separated, deserted or widowed, and those with spouses in prisons and other long term institutions. The report makes note of the transitory nature of the solo parents’s needs and therefore of the temporary need for financial assistance. In March, 1974, there were 13,762 on the Domestic Purposes Benefit, and during the next year 11,342 more benefits were issued making a total of 25,104. In March, 1975, says the report, there were only 17,231 on the benefit. Therefore 7873 benefits must have been terminated during the year or 57 per cent of those at the beginning. These numbers suggest the typical Domestic Purposes Benefit is held for less than two years and a half.

, The committee says it!: ] speculated on the reason ’why figures on the number I of Domestic Purposes (Benefits ceasing were not in-

eluded in the last Social Welfare Department report, although figures were given on sickness and unemployment benefits ceasing. “We consider this a most important statistic that should be included in future reports , land would like the figures I published for the year in ’ (question.” "It is interesting to con- 1 jecture how many of the 500 I solo parents who went off the benefit supposedly because of Mr Walker’s amnesty in mid--1975, might have gone off of ; their own accord under normal circumstances,” the com- ' mittee says. On the subject of de facto ’ relationships the committee says its is unhappy with Mr Walker’s “inflexible” attitude toward de facto relationships. ■ It has welcomed instances of the Social Welfare Department’s continuance of the , benefit to female solo par--1 ents where their de facto 1 partners have been unable to support them. Evidence had been seen of , severe financial difficulties ex- | perienced by some de facto ( husbands who were already supporting wives and children by former marriages and , whose wives were not receiv- | ing a Domestic- Purposes , Benefit. , It is worth mentioning, says ( the report, that de facto hus- ' bands are not required in law to support their de facto , families. The same situation applies also where men have 5 remarried. J The committee has considered ways to rectify this to _ some extent, particularly it j says, in view of feelings expressed by many solo mothers ’ receiving the benefit that their ’ children represented a sever financial handicap to the likelihood of their remarrying. Naturally most men who wish to marry a solo mother with children are willing to take the financial responsibil- i

lity of the children, says the report. On the other hand many men find it difficult to take on extra responsibility, particularly when the father is supporting his children. It would not seem a practical proposition under present economic conditions for the Domestic Purposes Benefit to continue in full in these areas, suggests the report. If, however, the benefit was to be seen as a two-part benefit, i.e. for the caring parent, and support for the children, and that under certain circumstances the caring parent could receive child support (but not support for herself), then the department would be able to administer it in a more flexible manner with consequent.advantages. Once a benefit had been granted, the adult allowance should continue until there was a change of status in the parent’s position. Where caring parents remarried or entered a stable de facto relationship, that child support, whether from the benefit or absent parent, should continue until a formal request to assume total financial responsibility for the children, suggests the report. The committee feels a three-month “’courtship or trial marriage period” with a benefit awarded which should not normally be adjusted or withdrawn for any change of circumstances, except marriage, within that time, would result in considerable reduction in tensions, prejudices and suspicions which seem associated with the cohabitation rule. Such a period could do much to establish the caring parent in a new relationship which, while it may not lead to marriage, might do much to take her off the benefit whether partially or totally. The committee believes the position of the solo parent should be reviewed at the end of the three-month period with a view to ascertaining existing family responsibilities and economic circumstances of the new partner. If he should already be supporting a wife and children by a former marriage, or if he is a beneficiary, a fulltime student or is receiving income less than the income received by the solo parent, then the children’s section of the benefit should continue, says the report. Exactly the same provisions should apply where maintenance paid by the absent spouse is concerned. The report suggests the benefit be immediately increased by $2.75 a week for the third and subsequent children (a total of $5 a week). This would enable the revised benefit for solo parents as outlined to work satisfactorily and would meet a generally felt concern that the allowance for the third and subsequent children is too. low. I