Pressure on sole parents to find a job By MICHELLE GUNN 30aug99 http://www.news.com.au/frame_loader.htm?/news_content/4080250.htm SOLE parents will be forced to attend career- development sessions as part of a federal government pilot project extending mutual obligation to parents on income support. The project, which will involve 2000 people during the next five months, is designed to encourage those receiving parenting payments to return to the workforce as soon as they are able. Family Services Minister Joceyln Newman said marriage break-ups were becoming a "very real drain on the system" and long-term welfare dependency was to be discouraged. Senator Newman said she was particularly concerned about the effects of long-term welfare on children, many of whom would grow up without the expectation that they must work to earn money. "You have a generational problem there if people are on income support for too long," she said. "We do sole parents and their children and Australia a good turn if we can help them to get the skills, get the confidence and get jobs." A Department of Family Services discussion paper says there are now 600,000 people relying on the parenting payment for income, two-thirds of whom are sole parents. The average duration on parenting payment is 3.4 years, but almost a quarter of lone parents have been receiving the payment for five years or more. The aim of the pilot program is to discover the best ways to prevent "risk of poverty, skills atrophy and the transmission of welfare dependence and social exclusion to the next generation". The pilot will target: People who have been receiving parenting payment for five years or more without earned income; People who have recently left paid employment or are recently separated; People without any earned income who have children aged between 12 and 16; Couples where neither partner has been in work for a long period. Those involved will be referred to a career counselling interview or seminar. For some it will be voluntary and for others compulsory. Participation in the JET scheme (a labour market program) is not compulsory but is to be encouraged. The approach has been criticised by women's groups and welfare activists because of an apparent contradiction between it and the Government's promotion of full-time mothering as a choice for women. Sole Parents Union president Kathleen Swinbourne said: "It's rather hypocritical of the Government. On the one hand they are saying it is very important for parents to stay at home and look after their children. On the other hand they say, but not if you are a sole parent. "It just seems that sole parents aren't considered by this Government to be real parents." Senator Newman conceded the existence of a tension between recognising the value of full-time mothering and helping sole parents out of welfare dependency. "I do believe, and the Government certainly has this commitment, to recognising that the raising of children is a national good," she said. "You can't say 'you are not doing any good just sitting there at home and raising your children', you are . . . but you also have to be preparing for the rest of your life and for your children's well-being by bringing in more income when you can." -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.alexia.net.au/~www/mhutton/index.html Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Subscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink Unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink
