The parenting payment also depends on what you earn. I don't know if it's for couples as well, but as a single parent I have to report my income each fortnight. I think it also cuts out when your youngest child is around 6 - 8.

parenting payment is an INCOME SUPPORT PAYMENT - it is NOT there to help pay for raising your children

Is this an oxymoron ? (always wanted to use that word in a sentence). Income support, income, benefits etc it all goes to raising children in some way.

income support is to get you to basic minimum wage. it isn't there to support you raising your children - it is there to help you meet minimum living requirements. you get the same amount of payment as someone on newstart, or with two partners both on newstart. it isn't there to help you raise your children - there is no additional amount paid because you have children. it is to cover the essentials of living - rent, electricity, gas. the difference between PPP and newstart is that you dont' have to have a mutual obligation activity (looking for work, studying etc) if you are on PPP - you are able to remain on PPP until your youngest child turns six.

PPP is only payable to ONE member of a couple, the primary carer. income limits are however significantly different for a PPP recipient and a newstart recipient. for newstart allowance, the maximum combined income for a couple is around $800 a fn (ballpark), and it doesn't matter which person earns it. for PPP, the income limits are UP TO around $1400 but are dependent on who earns it (if payee earns around $700 it cuts out completely, but if they earn nothing, the first $700 ish that their partner earns does not impact the payee's payment - it is a sliding scale from there until it cuts out at approx $1400 - the actual calculations are long and boring and i'm not going to include them here - but you can, as JwithJ did - go and have a look at the estimators)

all earned income for ANYONE on an income support payment needs to be reported to avoid debts being raised

as i said earlier - these are for BASIC living expenses - the ones you have whether you have kids or not. same as parenting single - as a single person on newstart, you'd get a similar level of payment. disability payment (for a single) is exactly the same. the portion of your payment that is there to help you with the additional costs of raising your children are the FTB payments.

so no, it's not an oxymoron - income support is there for YOU - it is there to support YOUR income whilst you are not working (or working minimal hours or low wage) - not the raising of your children - that is what you receive FTB, and hopefully maintenance, for. FTB is an add on payment for low income families (whether on income support or not) to help with raising their children. maintenance should come from the other parent


JwithJ - if your partner is on newstart he will stay on newstart with the same obligations (job seeker, work for the dole etc) as he is currently on - ONLY the primary carer will qualify for PPP. in most cases this is the mother when a child is young, but as the child grows, if mum is more employable than dad, she will go to work, and dad will go on PPP. it all depends on who has primary responsibility for the children really

HTH