End Single Mother Families' Poverty

End Single Mother Families' Poverty

Sign

Single mother families are the poorest family structure in Australia, with more than a third living in dire poverty.

Single mothers deserve to be given the chance to raise their children and provide the best possible life for them – they need to remain on Parenting Payment Single until their youngest finishes school, so they can afford to feed and house their children.

Help to change the lives of thousands of Australian women and children in the May 2023 budget.

Together we ask the government to:

  • Restore access for single mothers and their children to a livable level of income support.
  • Give single mothers and their children a better chance by ending mutual obligations and keeping parents on Parenting Payment Single while their children are in school.
  • Condemn the policy-induced choice between violence and poverty that hundreds of thousands of women face each year.

Research by Professor Anne Summers AO shows that as many as 60 per cent of single mothers are single because they fled violence.

In 2023, single mothers are less supported than they were 50 years ago. They often cannot pay their rent, or their phone bills or register their cars. Too many go without meals so their kids can eat.

The government may not be able to stop domestic violence, but it could stop poverty.

These recommendations are endorsed by the Women’s Economic Equality Taskforce, Unions NSW, the National and Victorian Councils of Single Mothers & their Children, UTS Centre for Social Justice & Inclusion and the National Council of Women of Australia.

Single mother families are the poorest family structure in Australia, with more than a third living in dire poverty.

Single mothers deserve to be given the chance to raise their children and provide the best possible life for them – they need to remain on Parenting Payment Single until their youngest finishes school, so they can afford to feed and house their children.

Help to change the lives of thousands of Australian women and children in the May 2023 budget.

Together we ask the government to:

  • Restore access for single mothers and their children to a livable level of income support.
  • Give single mothers and their children a better chance by ending mutual obligations and keeping parents on Parenting Payment Single while their children are in school.
  • Condemn the policy-induced choice between violence and poverty that hundreds of thousands of women face each year.

Research by Professor Anne Summers AO shows that as many as 60 per cent of single mothers are single because they fled violence.

In 2023, single mothers are less supported than they were 50 years ago. They often cannot pay their rent, or their phone bills or register their cars. Too many go without meals so their kids can eat.

The government may not be able to stop domestic violence, but it could stop poverty.

These recommendations are endorsed by the Women’s Economic Equality Taskforce, Unions NSW, the National and Victorian Councils of Single Mothers & their Children, UTS Centre for Social Justice & Inclusion and the National Council of Women of Australia.

Show you care about single mother families

We call on the Albanese government to restore single mothers to the dignity and financial security they deserve by:

  • Restoring eligibility for the Parenting Payment Single (PPS) to all single parents until their youngest child finishes high school.
  • Abolishing the Mutual Obligations requirements for parents of school-aged children (currently imposed once the youngest child turns six years old).
  • Increasing PPS to equal the Age Pension single rate.
  • Indexing and benchmarking the PPS the same as pensions.

How we use the data you enter on this form

Do Gooder (the advocacy platform powering this online action) processes personal information from you that you enter on this form so that we can provide the functions and related services to you and The Campaigner (the organisation responsible for this online action) for their legitimate purposes, including possibly exporting it to other systems, and to effectively respond to enquiries and communications related to those services.

Specifically when you enter:

  • Your location data (residential address or postcode) it is used to locate your elected representative, to pre-populate your email signature and to provide The Campaigner with a visualisation of the location of the support for this campaign.

  • All other data you may enter, including your email address, name, telephone number, commentary and so on is used by The Campaigner to advocate for the campaign’s goals and where required may be sent to the target of the campaign.

The data collected by Do Gooder is also used by us in aggregate form to improve the service and may be held on your behalf outside your country of residence by our third party service providers. These providers are bound by contract to only use personal information on our behalf, in accordance with agreed terms. While the privacy laws of the country in which personal information is stored or transferred may be different from those in your country, we will always have safeguards in place when storing or transferring personal information. We will never sell, rent, loan or in any other way pass your information on to other parties other than to provide this service to you and The Campaigner.

The personal information collected by Do Gooder is held subject to a Data Processing Agreement between Do Gooder and The Campaigner in compliance with the EU's GDPR and Australian law.

Learn more about our privacy policy here

How is my data used?