As a single parent, Jobseeker is brutal. Government should come up with a better 'Placesaver' to help me into my next job

In the lead-up to Australia’s Federal Budget, unemployed Australians like Therese are urging the government to use some imagination, and humanity, to address the poverty crisis. Therese is a single parent who found herself out of a job just before Christmas and is now struggling to survive in a cost-of-living crisis, while doing her best to protect her child from the consequences of poverty. She has previous experience in the education sector, not-for-profits , and social justice, and believes governments need to show leadership by making choices that improve life for those experiencing hardship. This post was sourced by the Australian Unemployed Workers’ Union (AUWU).

It has now been 17 weeks since I was bounced from my job due to an (alleged) technicality around the length of time a contractor could remain in the same role. It happened just before Christmas, and I’ve been struggling to survive on Jobseeker, as a single parent with a child (who just turned 14 and thus makes me ineligible for a higher payment).

The trouble started immediately. Bills I couldn’t pay. A Christmas I couldn’t afford. A summer we never had. Because it’s not just me, there is a child involved here experiencing the impact. And I don’t care what anyone thinks of single parents, she doesn’t deserve this.

Add to it, the landlord’s New Year’s gift of a $195 rent hike and we are experiencing significant hardship every day. My rent now makes up close to 63% of my entire net welfare payment.

Placesaver is my idea. It is a welfare payment similar to your employment income and ensures you can maintain your financial commitments until the government gives you another job, on an equivalent salary of course – see how fast they move then. ‘Oh never’ I hear you cry. ‘Why ever not?’ I say.

We are only limited by our imagination.

This would be different to JobKeeper, which kept people connected to their jobs during Covid lockdowns in the form of a subsidy paid to businesses. This money would go directly to welfare recipients, and firmly put the onus on government to help us into work, rather than punishing us – and wasting taxpayer money – on pointless Mutual Obligations.   

Welfare payment practices have evolved from practices of times long passed and we need to step back and evaluate just how fit for purpose constructs built on the sensibilities of the mid-20th century and earlier hold up today as we hurtle into the centre of the 21st Century. I can assure you, they don’t hold up. Jobseeker does not provide enough coverage to keep anyone safe or protected from the wolves at the door. At the very least, an increase in payment using the parameters of the Henderson Poverty line would be a conciliatory first step towards a dialogue with those of us with lived experience in these matters.

I’m urging the government to demonstrate leadership and lead on innovative ways to ensure all of us feel valued, included, and able to participate in the society we all belong in.

Instead, I feel I’m living in the twilight zone of society, never really being able to be a part of whatever is going on, because I just can’t afford it. That’s not a great space to be in when trying to compete with vast numbers of others hunting for a job. I used to think the Hunger Games was set in the future, but it’s already here.

Private renting is an option fraught with insecurity and fear. My grief is great that I can’t offer my child something that’s ours, that can’t be taken away from us.

In my utopia, a single parent, without their own home, is given a beautiful spacious home to live in. This home has room for expansion and space for entertaining and providing hospitality, with appropriate storage, ventilation and insulation. Again I caution, we are limited only by how far we allow our imagination to take us.

How, in a cost of living crisis, and much publicised severe rental shortage, are landlords able to increase rents for those surviving on the very lowest of incomes?

It’s on the government to govern this and prevent families from becoming homeless. At minimum, put a hold on rental increases when a renter’s income is taken away. In what kind of situation is it ok to wilfully increase rent when the renter’s income has decreased below poverty lines? Creating a problem for someone in a more vulnerable situation is not a clever solution. And what of equity, fairness and human rights?

When looking for the nub of all of this it seems all paths lead back to a poorly constructed premise that it is the disenfranchised and the most marginalised who need to pay a severe price for systemic government failures to provide adequate employment and/or adequate income protection. I suspect the reason for this is that the most marginalised are often left without a voice. But we do have a voice and that voice is getting louder.

Too many unhelpful narratives have been circulating for many years clouding our judgement around, for instance, what level of financial support a person out of work should be entitled to, or what a single parent might be entitled to, and need to be challenged, unpicked and looked at under a microscope. Can a single parent be entitled to however much is needed to support their families? A single parent doesn’t want anything less for their children than two parents would.

Just because I am not working and just because I am in receipt of Jobseeker or another welfare payment doesn’t equal my child and I needing to be thrown to the lions to see if we survive. Or not.

I want to remind government that kindness, generosity, and empathy, are no longer considered signs of weakness, and that no-one anywhere ever said these qualities could not be deployed.

Content moderator: AUWU