Stop making life harder for single mums

Stop making life harder for single mums

Caring for a baby or young child is exhausting. It’s a time parents need support; not threats to cut off the money they need to feed their baby, or pay the bills. Yet, this is the reality for more than 75,000 parents who have been moved onto the Federal Government’s punitive ParentsNext program.

Under the program, parents are being forced to adhere to demeaning conditions, or they risk having their support payments cut off. One mother was told she should have had her daughter skip kindergarten, so that she could meet her ParentsNext requirement of attending ‘story time session’ at the local library. Mums say it’s humiliating, and that they’re now in financial insecurity on a fortnight-to-fortnight basis. So far, one in five participants have already had their payments temporarily suspended. And the impacts are hurting single mums and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women in particular.

Add your name to the call to scrap ParentsNext.

 

More information (click to view) 

The Australian Human Rights Commission and the Human Rights Law Centre have slammed the ParentsNext program as inconsistent with Australia’s human rights obligations, saying it unjustifiably discriminates against Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and women.

Read more at:

ParentsNext welfare program breaches human rights, inquiry hears, The Guardian, 27 February 2019.

Single parents forced to attend ‘story time’ or lose Centrelink payments, The Guardian, 6 November 2018.

ParentsNext program comes under fire from single mothers who say it ‘makes life harder’, ABC News, 1 February 2019.

Help us get to 2,500 signatures

2,051 SIGNATURES

To Prime Minister Scott Morrison,

Caring for babies and young children is important, exhausting work. Parents should be supported, not punished.

We urge you to commit to:

  • Abandon the discriminatory ParentsNext program and redirect the funding into voluntary, evidence-based programs that support parents and do not threaten their parenting payments,
  • Work in genuine partnership with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander organisations to create Aboriginal-led programs that support families and promote self-determination, and
  • Develop an approach to social security that recognises the value of parenting, while breaking down the discriminatory barriers that lock so many women out of decent, secure and well-paid work. 

Signed,

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