Summary of proposal
Party
Australian Greens
Policy Topic
Social welfare
Portfolio
Social Services

This request sought an estimate of the total budget expenditure savings from parenting payment single that have occurred to date. The related legislative changes were made via the following Acts.

  • The Employment and Workplace Relations Legislation Amendment (Welfare to Work and Other Measures) Act 2005, which:
    • changed eligibility for parenting payment single so that recipients who claimed the payment on or after 1 July 2006 would continue to receive the payment until their youngest child reached the age of eight (instead of 16), subject to them meeting work participation requirements when their youngest child reached the age of six (instead of 13)
    • allowed parenting payment single recipients who were receiving the payment before 1 July 2006 (referred to here as ‘transitional recipients’) to continue receiving the payment until their youngest child reached the age of 16, subject to them meeting work participation requirements from the later of 1 July 2007 or when their youngest child reached the age of seven
    • tightened the disability support pension incapacity for work qualification requirement from 30 hours a week to 15 hours a week from 1 July 2006, which may have resulted in disability support pension recipients transferring to parenting payment single.
  • The Social Security Amendment (Parenting Payment Transitional Arrangement) Act 2011, which limited the abovementioned transitional recipients’ eligibility to remain on payment until their youngest child reached either:
    • 16 years of age if the child entered the recipient’s care before 1 July 2011 or
    • eight years of age if the child entered the recipient’s care on or after 1 July 2011.

This Act would have had effect from 1 January 2013, before it was amended by the following Act.

The Social Security Amendment (Fair Incentives to Work) Act 2012, which removed the provisions relating to transitional recipients mentioned in the Social Security Amendment (Parenting Payment Transitional Arrangement) Act 2011 above so that no parenting payment single recipients would remain eligible for the payment when their youngest child reached the aged of eight. This amendment also required recipients to satisfy work participation requirements when their youngest child reached the age of six.

This Act took effect from 1 January 2013.

 

28 February 2020