Balancing work and family: the experiences of low income parents
Anne Gregory, Matuna Mostafa and Ruth Ganley
Department of Family and Community Services
Contact Email:   anne.gregoryfacs.gov.au

The Department of Family and Community Services provides income support to parents, both single and partnered, with low incomes who have main care of dependent children. Changes to provide more help and support to parents to plan for a return to work and to combine paid work with parenting have recently been introduced as part of welfare reform. A survey of new claimants and a comparison group of longer term customers was undertaken before these changes to obtain baseline data, and to increase understanding of the characteristics and needs of people coming onto Parenting Payment and their experiences in the first few months on payment.

The survey provides a wealth of in-depth information for this key customer group. A previous paper prepared for the Australian Institute of Family Studies Conference earlier this year reported on customers’ characteristics and circumstances, work history and income support history, reasons for coming on to payment, and difficulties experienced. This paper discusses low income parents’ experiences combining parenting with paid work, the issues they face, their plans, aspirations and fears, and how these are related to experiences of paid work and self perception of their role in the family.

Paper Download Information (if available):

Paper2.pdf

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