The welfare-to-work trap

Thousands of single parent families have been pushed into poverty after having their payments reduced under the welfare-to-work policies of successive governments. After 10 years the workforce participation rate for sole parents has barely improved and a former senior minister admits the policy is too harsh. A new analysis of the government\u27s \u27welfare-to-work\u27 reforms has found that they failed to increase single parent employment in Australia, instead pushing up to 150,000 disadvantaged single parent families and their children into potential poverty. The reforms—introduced by the Howard Coalition government and continued and accelerated under the Gillard Labor government—were designed to move people off single parent payments and disability pensions and into employment. For single parents, the policy means that when their youngest child turns eight, they are compelled to look for work and are put onto the lower Newstart allowance