"In 2006 the Howard
government made substantial changes to the Parenting Payment Single (PPS) and
the Parenting Payment – Partnered (PPP) as part of what it called a
welfare to work program.
Single parents
claiming the PPS after July 1, 2006 would lose it when their youngest child
turned eight. They would go onto the much lower Newstart unemployment benefit,
and be expected to look for work.
Partnered parents
claiming the PPP would lose it when their youngest child turned six, but for
them it made little difference because their parenting payment and Newstart were
about the same.
For single parents
it meant
a significant cut in benefits at the time, and a harsher income test.
Those receiving PPS
before July 1, 2006 were “grandfathered” meaning they could continue to receive
it until their youngest child turned 16.
But in 2013, the
Gillard government
removed grandfathering, requiring all single parents with older children to
be moved onto Newstart or other payments if eligible.
At that time the
maximum rate of Parenting Payment Single was $331.85 per week. The maximum rate
of Newstart was $266.50.
And a change
introduced by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd made the parenting payments themselves
less generous.
For many decades,
the basic rate of payment for most single parents was the same as the pension.
In 2009 the Rudd
government delinked them and
lowered the wages benchmark so that PPS was set at 25% of male total average
weekly earnings instead of 27.7%.
The
2009-10 Budget also changed the link between levels of the maximum rate of
Family Tax Benefit Part A and the married rate of pension, a link originally
established following the
Hawke government’s child poverty pledge.
These changes have shrunk Family Tax Benefit payments per child from 16.6% –
21.6% of the married pension rate to 14.5% – 18.9%, a difference now of $13 per
week for each younger child and $17 per week for each older child – with more
shrinkage to come.
In 2014 the first
Abbott budget attempted to further wind back
Family Tax Benefits.
After a tough time
in the Senate, several of his measures finally passed, under Prime Minister
Malcolm Turnbull in 2016 and 2017.
Family Tax Benefit
B has been closed to couple families with children aged 13 years or older and
the Family Tax Benefit B income test tightened, the size of the payments to
large families has been wound back, the Family Tax benefit A end of year
supplement has been withdrawn from families earning over A$80,000 per annum and
rates have pay have been temporarily frozen, so that they don’t even increase
with inflation."