thread: Single Mums with 4 kids or more - are you forced to work when smallest child is 6?

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  1. #1
    Registered User

    Dec 2005
    5,951

    clover - if you've been receiving Parenting Payment since before 1/07/06 and your partner remains under the income threshold, or you become single, then yes, you will still qualify. But if your partner exceeds the income threshold and your parenting payment cancels, then you've lost it. If you reapply for it later down the track, you won't be 'grandfathered parenting payment' just parenting payment, so you will need to go back to work.

  2. #2
    Registered User
    Add ~clover~ on Facebook

    Sep 2007
    travelling
    9,557

    Hmm, ok, thanks. I plan to return to work around then anyway I think, if not before. But it is good to know.

  3. #3
    Registered User

    Sep 2009
    Melbourne, VIC
    581

    just wanted to clarify that you don't have to have a job in order to receive parenting payment after your youngest turns 6 - you need to either be working, looking for work, or participating in study (or a combination) for 30 hours per fortnight in order to receive the payment If you are looking for work, you will be linked to a job services provider to assist you to find suitable work.

  4. #4
    Registered User

    Sep 2009
    Melbourne, VIC
    581

    further clarification here ladies - from the 1st of July, recipients of parenting payment (single or partnered) and newstart can have an exemption from the activity test (looking for work, working, studying, voluntary work) if they are the principal carer or 4 or more dependent children - the exemption is applied for 12 months at a time. Also, changes to the activity test from 1st July mean that voluntary work is also an approved activity and you can meet your requirements through a combination of paid work, voluntary work and study as long as the total hours is 15 hours per week.

  5. #5
    Registered User

    Apr 2010
    1,118

    Voluntary now too? That's fantastic. It always seemed weird that they'd haul you off for work for the dole at somewhere you didn't want to be when somewhere you *did* want to be was begging for volunteers but weren't WFTD registered.

    3 years ago when WFTD was in full swing our local school lost several of their most dedicated volunteers (the most active being a very soft-spoken Asian woman who had an 8yo but suddenly became widowed at 40 so went from being a kept woman with no qualifications who had never worked to having to look for work on parenting payment) because Centrelink didn't allow it. Noone was happy, lose-lose all around.

    The woman in question has since remarried and is a kept woman again ...

  6. #6
    Registered User

    Dec 2006
    In my own private paradise
    15,272

    if you have four children between 6 and 16 you will receive an exemption from looking for work until your eldest child turns 16 - on that date (or when your exemption expires), you will have that exemption removed and will be under the same mutual obligation requirements as any other single parent. you mutual obligation activity is negotiated with c'link and may be work/study/training/volunteer work (with an approved organisation) for 15 hours per week, or, if you're not engaged in any of these, you wouldbe expected to be looking for work to meet these obligations

  7. #7
    Registered User

    Jun 2010
    Melbourne
    7

    Angry

    Some women fall pregnant every 5 years to avoid working, but isn't raising a family the equivalent of working 2 full time jobs/ they want us to work 3 now and then all these men still get away with paying CS! Australia is so slow, women have no rights in this country! think about it!