Media Release 25th July 2014 - National Welfare Rights Single mum on $55,000 Background In the Australian ran a front page story titled ‘The single mum on $55,000 in pensions, benefits and study aid’ on 30 May 2014. The story contained comments by Government, defending billions in spending cuts that were announced in the May Budget. The article stated: “Behind Mr Hockey’s warning on welfare is the government’s analysis of the benefits paid to sole parents such as a single mother who complained to the Treasurer about the budget. The exchange with the woman, who said she was voting Labor as a result of the spending cuts, prompted advisers to examine the benefits going to those in her situation. The Treasurer’s office estimated she would receive $54,417 in government payments including the Parenting Payment, both forms of Family Tax Benefit, several supplements, rent assistance and education supplements. “The calculations include the Jobs, Education and Training Child Care Fee Assistance, which would be $15,120 a year assuming she was using the help to put her children in care for 40 weeks each year when she worked about 27 hours a week.” Comments: Maree O’Halloran from the National Welfare Rights Network said that: “It’s disconcerting to learn that the ’$55,000 single parent’ pilloried in the article may not even exist, and that the Department of Human Services is unable to confirm if the scenarios being portrayed by the Government are fiction or not. We don’t know if there are one, one hundred or no people in similar circumstances. “Unfortunately, a story based on no real person and no real evidence received widespread coverage across Australia, and it fed negative stereotyping of people who need social security assistance. “At the NWRN we prefer to deal with social security facts – not fiction. The facts are that all of us, including people receiving social security pay tax and contributes to community good through the GST. The facts are that the Budget bills before Parliament will strip away essential financial support from the most vulnerable in our community. “The casualties include 110,000 young unemployed people facing no income support for six month in every year; $62.40 per fortnight taken from about 40,000 carers, people with disabilities and single parents with the axing of study assistance with the axing of the Pensioner Education Supplement, and $449 million through less generous pension indexation, affecting over 4.3 million pensioners and 220,000 single parents.”
Posted on: Thu, 24 Jul 2014 23:16:53 +0000
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