First of all, let’s take a moment to remember how awful ParentsNext was and how good it was to have it stopped. The end of ParentsNext was a huge victory over a punitive mandatory program. The government agreed in May 2023 to stop almost all compulsory aspects of the...
ParentsNext
Single mother wins, then and now
Friday 5 May was a momentous day. Early in the morning, an announcement was made of the end of mandatory participation in ParentsNext, affective immediately, with a new co-designed voluntary program to be ready by July 2024. CSMC and our colleagues have been working...
Federal Budget and single parents: a deep dive
On Budget Night, Tuesday 9 May, single parents had a significant victory: the Parenting Payment Single will now be accessible to single parents until their youngest child turns fourteen years. This is a terrific outcome - even if it is not a silver bullet for the...
Pushing for change
There are a number of issues that CSMC is always working on. ParentsNext, a fair deal for people on JobSeeker and in Workforce Australia Employment Services (the old JobActive), and the growing rate of poverty among single mothers and their children are three of them....