Antheia, depending on where you live, and how much you have to pay for accomodation and food, some people may be able to live on $30k, and yet others won't be able to live on $100k. If you live in a city where rents are phenomenally high (as it is here in WA), have to pay childcare because you have to work or where the cost of buying a house is among the most expensive in the world, the money doesn't go as far. My family owns one small petrol-miser car, we live in a three bedroom house that cost us half a million dollars to buy (and was considerd cheap for Perth at the time and where the mortgage costs us less than rent) and we don't smoke, drink, eat out either. We're surviving but we're by no accounts rolling in it either.

So personal circumstance plays a big big part. When I vented about my circumstance, I clearly said it wasn't about missing out on the payment (to make it crystal clear yet again, in case anyone missed it) but to point out how the system is a disincentive for working mums to have a go and try to earn more for the sake of their families. Earning more, under the current system, can often DISADVANTAGE working mothers.