Monitoring Income Maintenance Policies for Single Mothers

Abstract

The Supporting Parent's Benefit was introduced in 1973 in an atmosphere of controversy. It provided Australian government support for certain low income groups of mothers with dependent children, for the first time. An attempt has been made in this study to assess the impact of long term income maintenance on these hitherto unsupported mothers. Changes in the population of beneficiaries have been monitored by analysing annual aggregate figures taken at 30 June for the years 1974 to 1979 which were provided by the Department of Social Security. The non‐married subgroup which is the largest group of mothers and children is of particular interest. Claims that adolescents have been encouraged to take on the care of their ex‐nuptial children simply because financial support is available are not substantiated. However, it is evident that, for more than half the total number of ex‐nuptial mothers, Supporting Parent's Benefit must be relied on for a period of many years. This study indicates that this subgroup generally have fewer material resources than the married supporting mothers so that the long term effects of long term low income existence on mothers and children needs to be known in order to gauge the overall results of the introduction of the benefit. The question why some ex‐nuptial mothers become independent of support quickly and others do not merits further investigation as it may provide important clues to ways of improving the benefit program.