The federal government has a new law regarding single parent benefits. Single mums (and the majority are mums not dads) now have to go back to work when their youngest is 8 years old. The government said that this is because in the past payments went all the way up to 16 years old for some people and this is a way of making the system equitable.
Now we all know the stereotypes we have of single mothers. We still demonize them as whores who have multiple children to multiple men. They rip off our system and bring down our school ratings. They are uneducated and they are fallen women, unless of course they do something amazing like start a successful company or write a billion dollar book franchise (Hello. JK Rowling). Oh, and don’t forget their kids are the shitty kids at your school.
I’d like to address that last stereotype. The shittiest kids at my kid’s school (a rather privileged place) come from rather wealthy families where both parents are present. I mean by shitty, I don’t mean drug dealing in the sand pit, but you get my drift.
I was prompted to blog again when I read a news articles about single mums who are doing it tough. One of the stories was in my local paper and told of a woman with mental illness who has to survive on less than $500 a week. Now if you live somewhere other than where I live, you might think “Woahhh that’s so much money”. But given that rent for an apartment is at least $250 for an apartment in a not so great area, that leaves you about $250 for the rest of the week. That’s about $35 a day. $35 a day may be enough in say a place like Laos, but it’s not much in Australia if you have to raise a kid.
There was also a news article about someone who has to sacrifice private school education now that there are welfare cuts. The single mum makes just over the threshold per fortnight, so is surviving on about $450 a week.
If you are reading from overseas, you might be thinking “WTF? Why are Australian welfare kids going to private school”. Well it’s because the policies of the Howard government made private schooling affordable to most people. They are mostly church schools that are heavily subsidized by the federal government. It’s much cheaper and convenient to give a lot of money to a private school than to make a school in the outer burbs really good. So there’s this divide we have now where people think they have to send their kids to private school to get a good education, which leaves public schools in non-high socio-eco areas with the dregs of society. It has become the norm to send your kid to a private school if you value education and live outside the leafy suburbs where the “good” schools are.
Back to this issue of welfare cuts for single mums.
The thing that makes me feel a bit ill about the whole thing is that people are supposed to turn to charities like Anglicare for support. Why not just put more money into welfare rather than subsidize welfare agencies? Do you hear the people sing?
What era are we living in?
People do not understand that the “riff raff” that you are trying to avoid, could be easily avoided if everyone had more. You are less likely to go to school with a prostitute’s kid if that prostitute had enough to live on. I could rant on and on, but this blog endeth here.
Until next time. You know you love me.
OzPoliChix XOXO
Oz Poli Chix 