Could you live on $35 per day, every day of the month?

[twinkles**stars]

THE Families Minister, Jenny Macklin, has angered welfare groups by claiming she could live on the $35-a-day Newstart allowance.

Ms Macklin made the comments on the day that more than 80,000 single parents were shifted from the parenting payment to the lower Newstart allowance, leaving some up to $110 a week worse off.

Visiting a Melbourne hospital to promote the government's Dad and Partner pay scheme, which also began yesterday, Ms Macklin was asked whether she could survive on the $246 a week payment. She said: ''I could'' but the question and Ms Macklin's answer were recorded as ''inaudible'' in a transcript of the news conference later issued by her office.

Claims she could live on $35 a day ... the Minister for Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs, Jenny Macklin. Photo: Craig Sillitoe

A spokeswoman for Ms Macklin said the exchange had not been deliberately omitted but the transcript had been produced from a smartphone recording of an outdoor news conference. ''We provide the best quality transcripts available to us to help inform the media,'' the spokeswoman said.

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''Of course the media also attend and record on high-quality professional devices.''

As a cabinet minister, Ms Macklin earns $6321 a week, 25 times the rate of Newstart.

The cost of renting alone in her Melbourne suburb of Ivanhoe is greater than the Newstart allowance, with the median rent for a one-bedroom flat $270 a week.

The chief executive of the Australian Council of Social Service, Cassandra Goldie, said evidence to three parliamentary inquiries had shown the allowance had not increased in real terms in two decades and, as a result, some recipients were forced to live in ''extreme poverty''.

''The minister should look at the evidence of people who are trying to do that,'' she said.

The vice-president of the National Welfare Rights Network, Kate Beaumont, said Ms Macklin's comments were ''surprising''. They seemed at odds with those of Labor senators who, in a committee report in November, had called for the allowance to be increased, she said.

Calls by welfare groups for Newstart to be lifted have been echoed by others including the Business Council of Australia, which has warned it may be entrenching poverty, and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development which, in 2010, said the payment was so low it might not be enough to enable a person to look for a job.

The government has also faced strong criticism for the changes which shift thousands of single parents from the parenting payment to the Newstart allowance when their youngest child turns eight.

While parents who started receiving the payment after July 2006 already face these conditions, until now those who were receiving the parenting payment before July 2006 were able to keep it until their youngest turned 16.

Ms Macklin said the parenting payment changes were about ensuring all parenting payment recipients were treated the same.

''What's important for people who are unemployed is that we do everything possible … to help people get into work and that's what we'll be doing with these single parents as well,'' she said.

''The more people going back to work the better. It's better for the family. It's great to see mum and/or dad going … to work. Unfortunately, we have far too many children growing up in families where nobody is working.''

The change will have the greatest impact on parents who work part-time because parenting payment recipients are allowed to earn more than Newstart recipients before their payments are affected. As a result of the change, a single parent who gets no income from work will be $115 worse off a fortnight, while those who earn $400 a week from work will see their income drop by $223 a fortnight.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/political-news/i-could-live-on-newstart-macklin-20130101-2c485.html#ix...

[*crikey*mate*]

I don't think I could, even if I didn't have kids. But I guess if I had to then I would find a way, but I don;t think I would like that lifestyle very much.

[i-need-a-martini]

It is low but I reckon I could just manage survive if I was single.

It sounds low (and it is low) but doable considering all the other benefits that the person would get. For example, the article quotes a one bedroom apartment costs $270 a week to rent which is more than the newstart benefit. Fair enough. But then again a single person is entitled to rent assistance of $268 per fortnight. 

I suppose the purpose is to discourage long term unemployment.

[daydream**believer]

no way, not with 3 kids and a mortgage

[twinkles**stars]

It is low but I reckon I could just manage survive if I was single.

It sounds low (and it is low) but doable considering all the other benefits that the person would get. For example, the article quotes a one bedroom apartment costs $270 a week to rent which is more than the newstart benefit. Fair enough. But then again a single person is entitled to rent assistance of $268 per fortnight. 

I suppose the purpose is to discourage long term unemployment.

Maybe I should have added single parent in the title?

[froot_loopz]

going to find out, for the next 4 weeks, till my next pay from work.

no kids, no mortgage I could do it

[twinkles**stars]

froot....:( good luck.

[*crikey*mate*]

So what other assistance will be available for single parent families?

I figure they will get a health care card which will help if they don't get sick too often (doesn't that get them some cheaper medicines) but I don't think regular over the counter stuff like cough syrup and panadol is included in that, is it? worm treatments? other chemisty kind of stuff like vitamins etc?

So they get that,

$246 for the Newstart payment and

$144 for rent

so that's now $390 a week

I think it would be hard to find a place to rent for $144 a week, even if it is only one bedroom, but is that really a good scenario for a single parent with kids? They all sleep in the one room?

Maybe I'm a bit fussy, but I do think that there comes a time when an adult should have a seperate room to their child/ren, and ideally, if there is more than one child and they are of mixed gender, then at least a seperate bedroom for each gender - i think there does come a time when teenage children would not ideally share a bedroom with a sibling of the opposite gender - fair enough when they are young, but when they are teens? And even though it is being paid for by welfare money, I think that in the long term, an adult should have a bedroom seperate from their children.

So even taking the standard of accomodation out of the equation, to feed and clothe and educate even one child and the parent would be pretty tough on approx $200 a week, wouldn't it?

Maybe for some weeks it is doable, but continually week after week?

[freakiness]

This is such a beat up.

The reporter should have listened instead of nagging.

Macklin was talking about why...... some single parents already get Newstart and the changes only affect those that with grandfathered conditions.

It is also a stupid argument because single parents are not expected to live on the dole alone, they collect FTA payments and rent assistance.

Newstart could be higher but this is a BS argument over it.

[*crikey*mate*]

it just seems ironic to me that on one hand they are paying out money so that 2 parents can now simultaneously stay at home to bond with their child, but on the other hand are making it really hard for a single parent to stay home and care for their child/ren in a long term situation.

Yes, the bonding is good for the family and the child as is the example of seeing a parent go off to work and not rely on welfare for survival, but surely in the case of single parents, where they are the sole care giver, the good of the family is to have a parent at home?

With a two parent working family, there are double the amount of days of sick leave to take if a child is sick, double the amount of paid holiday time available, and one parent may choose to work in a lesser paying job for the benefit of flexibility that works in around school times and school hoilidays etc, plus there is double the money anyway to pay for after school care if needed.

I take my hat off to a single parent who copes with even just the basics (especially with young kids).

I think we may be opening up the door for a generation fo kids being left unattended until mum or dad finishes work.

If the goal was to cut down on long term unemployment, then maybe some sort of program where they could keep their skills current or updated or even to retrain and learn more skills so that when the child was old enough to be unattended for periods of time, reentry into the workforce would be easier?

By forcing this generation of single parents back into the workforce now, I fear that there will be many who may be forced into unskilled employment and thus indefinite low pay, with no chance to improve their skills, so will be traspped in the poverty cycle and government dependence for life.

I know it's possible, we have seen single mums on these boards manage single parenting and work and study, but is everyone capable of that? Are there even enough opportunities like that for all single parents?