Monday, April 15, 2013

International:Growing intolerance of supporting single parents long-term

With the help of Linda I've been updating the Welfare Reform website.

Some news on what's happening in the UK and Australia.

Despite a decade of fiddling with reform the UK numbers are fairly stubborn. The recent rise in Job Seeker benefit reflects not only the recession but the fact lone parents with children 5 and older are being transferred onto that benefit:





In Australia single parents with children 8 or older are also being transferred onto their unemployment benefit known as Newstart. That's caused a recent upturn in the statistics:


(In NZ the age of youngest child before transfer remains at 14. Why, I don't know)

Transfers don't get people off welfare but they do indicate a growing intolerance of supporting single parents for long periods as of right. I expect these countries are aiming to get dedicated single parent support down to youngest child ages of 1-3 as in the US and Scandinavian countries.

3 comments:

D.E. said...

What is the difference between a rich man creating an environment where poor will die and the poor using their environment so that the rich die?

Nothing, apparently. One is the same as the other. The rich do not have moral superiority becasue of the power society gives them and it should not outrage them that those they seek to kill would want to kill them. The only reason they'd be upset about that idea is if they knew that they were doing wrong in creating an environment where the poor will die.

Growing intolerance at the poor for being unable to participate in a system that requires the poor? Of course not. It is the realisation that the systems that made one rich cannot contain the urge to be morally correct also.

Johnny said...

Sorry, D.E.

I have no idea of what you have just said.

Anonymous said...

In Australia you get a $5000 baby bonus and more welfare dollars for each additional kid you have on welfare! Kicking them off the pension to the Newstart Allowance should happen when the kid turns 3 not 8. That's 8 years of not working -making them pretty unemployable (not that they want to work anyway).