Anthony Albanese may speak proudly of being raised by a single mum in public housing, but life has become a lot harsher for those with less
I am a sole parent mum with a young son who is in primary school. In April this year, the home I grew up in and lived in for decades was sold by my father who lives interstate, and I only found out after the settlement. My son and I are now facing imminent homelessness.
My son has serious health issues, including multiple food allergies, anaphylaxis and asthma, that have constrained my ability to look for and secure paid employment. Since last year, I have been transferred from the parenting payment single to the jobseeker payment, which is substantially lower. This payment, which was designed to support an out-of-work adult, is now expected to be enough for a parent and child to live on – an impossibility with the exorbitant cost of rent these days.
Prioritise public and social housing for sole parent families so that the threat of homelessness is not a reality for mums and their kids.
Increase rent assistance in line with market value rental prices. The maximum rent assistance a single parent can receive is $85 a week, but you can’t even find a basic two-bedroom unit for under $350 a week.
Cap rental prices so that families on low incomes are not having to pay more than 30% of their income on rent, which is the benchmark used by real estate agencies to determine if an applicant can afford a rental.
Reinstate the parenting payment single until our children turn 16 at an amount we can actually live on.
Increase jobseeker and other payments for sole parents. The additional coronavirus supplement went some way to alleviating poverty and buffering the burden of the increasingly high cost of living, but that ended in March 2021.
