A federal Labor MP has joined a growing chorus of experts and advocates calling on the government to extend the single parenting payment to more mothers in next month's budget.
Since 2013, single unemployed parents have been shifted off the payment and onto the lower Jobseeker payment when their youngest child turns eight.
Recipients are overwhelmingly mothers, and an expert report handed to the government recently called for the change to be reversed.
Advocates are now demanding Labor "correct [the] mistakes" of the past.
Backbencher Kate Thwaites said the existing system is failing sole-parent families, and she hopes the government will rectify the problem in the looming May 9 budget.
"It does not seem to be doing what it should be doing, which is to help single parents and their families not live in poverty," Ms Thwaites told the ABC.
"We now have a couple of reports, well researched and well documented reports, that have been put before the government to that effect.
"We do not want to see single parents and their families living in poverty, so certainly I hope that is something we see in the budget."
Previously, single parents could access the payment until their youngest child turned 16.
In 2006, the Howard Coalition government changed the eligibility requirements for the payment, lowering the age limit to eight years old. The decision was grandfathered, so people already on the scheme could remain on it.
The Gillard Labor government in 2012 scrapped the grandfathering, moving people with a child older than 8 but younger than 16 onto an unemployment benefit.
When parents are moved off the single parenting payment and onto Jobseeker, they lose roughly $100 a week.
In a letter to the Albanese government, the Women's Economic Equality Taskforce last week recommended the government reinstate the payment for parents with children under 16 years of age, because it "will more appropriately classify single mothers as doing parenting work, rather than being unemployed".
While the government it yet to commit to the change, Finance Minister Katy Gallagher said the government was "seriously looking" at the recommendation.
Ms Thwaites would not weigh in on speculation the payment could be restored for single parents with children under 12 years of age.
"In terms of what age the payment should continue to, there are arguments around a number of points there, and I know the treasurer will be taking those very seriously," she said.
Time to fix 'disgraceful' changes
Liberal backbencher Russell Broadbent opposed the changes when they were first introduced.
He told the ABC it's disgraceful that many sole-parent families have been forced into poverty due to inadequate government support.
"It is hard enough to raise children when there is both of you," he said.
"We cast a whole lot of people into poverty, and it was a disgrace then, and a disgrace now, and those families need support."
Mr Broadbent suggested parents should continue to receive the payment until their "child goes to high school, not prior to that".
Independent MP Zoe Daniel is advocating for a higher age bracket to be applied, in line with the recommendations made by the Women's Economic Equality Taskforce.
She said costings prepared by the parliamentary budget office show extending the payment to parents with children under 16 years would cost the government $1.1 billion over four years.
"Women with children — and it is 95 per cent women who are currently claiming this allowance — need that support while their children are in high school," she told RN Breakfast.
"The cost is substantial, but this is about not only enabling women, but preventing these children from falling into intergenerational poverty."
Editor's note (02/05/2023): This story has been updated to clarify previous governments’ decisions to change the single-parent payment. The Coalition government reduced the age limit from 16 years old to 8 years in 2006, grandfathering the changes. The Labor government then scrapped the grandfathering provisions in 2012. The story has been updated to reflect this.
