Single parent payment to be extended until youngest child is 14

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese had today confirmed the single-parent payment will be extended until the youngest child is 14 years old.

He was speaking ahead of tomorrow’s federal budget which the government says will contain a raft of measures to ease the cost-of-living crisis.

Under current rules, single parents receiving the payment are eligible for the payment until their youngest child turns eight. It was originally 16, but the former Howard government changed it to 8.

While a federal government taskforce set up last year recommended the maximum age be set at 16, the prime minister said the age of 14 was the “right balance”.

“Fourteen is the period in which a student starts to gain more independence, doesn’t need the same level of support at home that a younger child does,” Albanese said.

“Eight was far too low. An eight-year-old needs mum or dad or their carer to cook them dinner, to look after them. A 14-year-old starts to enter today’s world, starts to move into that change into adulthood.”

Parents will continue to receive the higher support, with a current base rate of $922.10 per fortnight (95 per cent of the Age Pension), until their youngest child turns 14.

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The changes announced today will mean eligible single parents currently on JobSeeker will receive an increase to payments of $176.90 per fortnight.

Albanese said the changes will cost $1.9 billion over the next two years.

Lifting the age limit will provide additional financial support to at least 57,000 single principal carers, more than 90 per cent of whom are single mothers.

“Single parents carry the world on their backs. They sacrifice so much to give their children a better life,” Albanese said.

“This is about giving them the greater security and better support they deserve.”

The government said recipients of the single parent payment would still be required to participate in employment, study or training, and maintain connections with the work force to help them move to employment when their children are older.