Social security in Autstralia It is commonly assumed that a sole mother and her children will be financially secure once the mother finds paid work. Emphasis is thus placed on job retraining for mothers who left the workforce to care for their children. Yet upon marital separation, the demands of the care of children will compete even more strongly with the demands of paid work, sole mothers having lost any daily child care support the fathers once provided. ‘In view of my son’s chronic illness, the divorce has put an extra strain on me that no money could compensate. It’s the lack of support as well as the lost pay and effects on my career when I have to take time off to care for him.’ Such were the difficulties highlighted by some of the sole mothers who took part in the Parents and Children after marriage breakdown study, the Institute’s 1987 follow-up study of parents who were divorced in the Melbourne Registry of the Family Court of Australia. Poverty traps associated with sole-parent pensions are not only an additional barrier to paid work, but they also challenge the assumption that the family will escape poverty once the mother finds paid work.
As Brownlee (1985) explained, the term ‘poverty traps’ refers to the combined effects of taxation and the social security income test. She noted that sole-parent pensioners working part- time can find that their jobs provide little if any financial improvement because of these effects, coupled with the work-related costs of travel and child care. Pensioners lose 50 cents in every dollar of the pension for each dollar earned above a certain amount of earnings that is, $66 for a single parent with two children ($42 plus $12 for each child).
The Essay on Should Mothers Join Work
Should Mothers be allowed to go outside their homes or stay inside and work inside? Nowadays, it is very common for mothers to work outside the home. Whether, a woman should stay at home or work to support the family is widely debated by many people. Some argue that the family especially a small child may be neglected. However, many women need to work because of economic reasons or want to work to ...
Combined with income tax, effective marginal tax rates exceed 70 per cent over certain ranges of income. However, if adequate payments are to be made only to people in need, then poverty traps are an inevitable consequence. Under such a targetted system, poverty traps cannot be eradicated, but measures can be taken to alleviate them. Policy makers are faced with the very difficult task of attempting to create a system which provides a safety net for families in crisis, but does not discourage sole parents from entering the workforce on a full-time or part-time basis.
The Institute’s 1987 study is an excellent opportunity to assess the extent to which economic disadvantage persists in the long term. The parents in the sample had two children from their first marriage. Interviews for the initial Economic Consequences of Marriage Breakdown study took place in 1984 (some two to five years after separation).
The follow-up interviews in 1987 were therefore some five to eight years after separation. This analysis focuses on families headed by women who were not living with other adults (126 families in 1984, and 101 in 1987).
The vast majority of sole mothers in the second survey were also sole mothers in the previous survey, while the remainder had had partners in 1984 and since separated, or they and their children had been living with other adults, such as parents, at the time of the first survey. It is important to point out that the situation is better for sole- parent pensioners now than at the time of the survey.
For instance, maintenance income and earned income are now subject to a separate test, the free income area is now indexed, and sole parents in full-time work can keep their pensioner fringe benefits for six months. In addition, the Jobs, Education and Training (JET) program has been established to help sole parents into the workforce and provide access to child care, and a $100 employment entry payment has been introduced for sole-parent pensioners whose earnings increase to over $228 per week, or who go off the pension to begin paid work. It is mothers who tend to be seen as dependent on public funding, rather than the children who have lost most of their father’s financial support. Decisions made in the marriage for mothers to forsake careers to care for children have been extremely costly for these families upon separation. Funder (1991a) indicated that a lack of qualifications and the presence of young children were barriers against these women returning to the workforce. Many mothers felt they ought to be home when their children came home from school and during the school holidays, and that this would not be possible if they were employed.
The Essay on Is Daycare Beneficial For Children And Parents?
When you are a child, who takes care of you? Now, the cost of living is so high that many people under age twenty-five are moving back in with their parents. Young people are getting married later now than they used to. The average age for a woman to get married is about twenty-four, and for a man twenty-six. Newly married couples often postpone having children while they are establishing careers. ...
These dilemmas are captured in the following comments: ‘There is so little money on Supporting Parents’ Benefit – it’s a constant struggle. The only alternative is to go out to work full-time, but it’s a constant trade-off – money for the things the children want or time for me to spend with the children. How can you develop a career and have children?’ Further, sole-parent fathers continued to work full-time, while caring for their children. According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, the labour force participation rates of sole-parent fathers are much greater than those for sole- parent mothers, even when age of the youngest child is controlled. Fathers are also much more likely to work full- time than mothers (ABS June 1990).
The Institute’s survey showed that work for women after marriage breakdown (like work for men) is primarily a function of their work at the time of the marriage breakdown, with those not employed at this time being less likely to be in paid work post-separation than the employed. Post-separation poverty, then, can be traced to pre- separation work status.
These trends reinforce the need for measures to assist mothers to re- enter the workforce. As Funder (1991b) explained, the sole-parent pension is a safety net for sole parents while they have no other means of support, such as income from full-time employment. However, poverty traps, coupled with children’s continuing needs for care, can increase the length of time the family will remain entirely dependent on welfare. For the children, the associated experience of poverty can amount to a large slice of their childhood. Indeed, research in Australia, Great Britain and the United States indicates that such poverty is likely to result in career disadvantages for the children, thereby increasing their chances of living in poverty when adults (Kilmartin and Wulff 1984; McLanahan 1991)..
Childrens Beauty Pageants Children Child Parents
The Darker Side of Children's Beauty Pageants It's 7: OO A. M. on a Saturday, kids everywhere are just waking up ready to watch their favorite line up of Saturday morning cartoons. Marie, a four year old child, is preparing for her long weekend of make-up, hairspray, and gowns. Marie is one of many children who are forced by over-demanding parents who pressure their young and innocent children ...
