Dear Senators: For many of us the pandemic is a blessing
In response to the Coronavirus pandemic, the Federal government has provided a temporary $550 supplement to many income support payments. These are due to be reduced on 24 September. For many families who have been reliant on income support, this effective doubling of payments has meant a more stable and healthy life. In today’s important analysis, we republish a lightly-edited letter to Senator Marise Payne, Minister for Women, and Senator Anne Ruston, Minister for Families and Social Services, authored by Terese Edwards (@Terese_NCSMC) of the National Council for Single Mothers and their Children, and Casandra Goldie (@CassandraGoldie), CEO of ACOSS (@ACOSS). The letter puts forward the case for making the supplement permanent because it assists women to leave domestic and family violence, and is interspersed with testimonies from women about the impact of the supplement on the family. This letter has been endorsed by several agencies.
Dear Minister Payne and Ruston,
Why adequate income support is vital to women and their children’s safety
We write to seek a meeting with you at the earliest opportunity about changes needed to income support policy to respond to the needs of women and their children facing family and domestic violence.
Background
The Coronavirus Supplement, an extra $550 per fortnight, has provided a powerful insight into the effect and outcome for women affected by family and domestic violence if they have access to crucial income support. The magnitude of the impact is remarkable, noting the first payments for eligible recipients commenced between April and until 11 May 2020. Women are self-reporting the life-changing and life-saving aspects which are included in this letter.
I was going okay; we did not have a lot, but we were safe. His abuse got worse, and then I lost the PPS because Carly (name changed) turned eight years. Since then I ration every household item and services. For the past two weeks, our shopping basket is full and we can keep the heater on. We are just starting to think that we can make it.
Our income support has never been assessed by government to identify how it can either help to keep women and their children safe or place them at greater risk of family and domestic violence.
For example, the income support system provides welcomed exemptions that provide that, in specified circumstances, a single principal carer on JobSeeker can receive the equivalent amount of the Parenting Payments Single and not have mutual obligations imposed. However, the specified circumstances do not include family and domestic violence.
I did not smile and tried not to talk to people – all of my front teeth are chipped. Sometimes he meant to hit me and sometimes he was just so wild I could not escape his arms, his fists. I have had my first consult with a dentist, we have a payment plan. I can get my teeth fixed and will not have to skip meals. I have also bought new winter clothes for my children.
As another example, the current “Crisis Payment”, the only payment that references family and domestic violence, is a “once off payment” with a complex application process. The rate of the crisis payment is set at one week’s payment. However, if a person is not in receipt of an income support payment, the person is ineligible for any crisis payment if they are in a family and domestic violence situation. In many situations, when a woman is leaving a violent relationship, she has not yet applied for an income support payment, and significant delays can occur before an income support payment is made available. This is a major barrier to accessing the Crisis Payment.
It is a life saver. I know when I left, my slept in an empty house on an air mattress under towels to try and stay warm. Despite a court order the police would not come and help us get our things from the family house. We never did get any of it. I did not find out about the CL-DV $900 payment (crisis payment) until months after the 7-day deadline expired. St Vinnies delivered a couch and regularly put fuel in the car to get my son to school. I bought a wishing machine on the NILS scheme. Borrowed an esky. For many of us the pandemic is a blessing.
Questioning through Senate Estimates has exposed the inadequacies of the design of income support to adequately respond to the needs of women and their children facing family and domestic violence.
$550 has given myself and my two young children the opportunity to escape severe domestic violence, not only having enough to fill up the car to get away but also enough to purchase fresh food and needed medical items. I did not have to choose between our safety or food. This has been a life changer and also may have been a life saver. My children for the first time ever can have fresh food in a safe home surrounded by love.
As you know, in the face of the crisis of COVID-19, the Federal Government rapidly introduced a range of changes to income support to respond to the needs of people in crisis, with thousands losing their jobs on a daily basis. These changes were widely applauded, including by our organisations. In particular, the Coronavirus Supplement (“CVS”) was introduced, doubling the brutally low rate of JobSeeker, and also paid to parents in receipt of Parenting Payment. In total, currently about 2.3 million people are heavily relying on the CVS to cover their basic costs. In addition, the Government suspended the Liquid Asset Waiting Period and other waiting periods, which we all widely welcomed. We call for these to be permanently abolished to ensure people in need have timely access to income support.
My boys cannot sleep unless Toby, their dog, sleeps in their bedroom. They have PTSD from the violence that they heard. I thought I was hiding it from them. I had just hocked my last piece of jewellery so we could pay Toby’s vet bills when the extra $550 all started. I really do not have all the words to tell you what this extra money has done for me. It has brought us hope.
The capacity of the Federal Government to introduce these changes rapidly is in contrast with the lack of action to address in order to key issues in income support that one or more of our organisations have advocated to ensure the system adequately responds to the crisis of family and domestic violence.
The need to address problems in the income support system to respond to these issues is all the more pressing considering COVID-19 has led to a greater incidence of family and domestic violence.
Findings from the Australian Institute of Criminology survey revealed that more than half of women who had experienced physical or sexual violence before the COVID-19 crisis said the violence had become more frequent or severe since the start of the pandemic. Thirty-three percent (33%) of women indicated that it was the first time they had experienced physical or sexual violence in their relationship.
We seek a meeting to discuss how to ensure that income support is fixed permanently to adequately respond to the needs of women and their children in crisis, the crisis of family and domestic violence, as well as the heightened risks associated with COVID-19.
I managed to move myself and two small children out of an unsafe home without having to put myself into debt thanks to the supplement.
We are aware that the Federal Government has sponsored the Inquiry into Family, Domestic and Sexual Violence. We sincerely welcome this Inquiry, and in particular, the terms of reference that speak to economic security for women as well as the learnings of the COVID-19 crisis. It is these two elements that require immediacy during the current fluid and concerning circumstances. We appreciate the joint sponsorship of the Inquiry by both the Minister for Women and the Minister for the Families and Social Services.
As Minister for Human Services, Minister Payne, you publicly discussed a desire and action for the Australian Public Service to be part of the fight against family and domestic violence, and your statements were accompanied by policy changes. We also note your work, Minister Ruston, in seeking that the current national Family Law and Child Support Inquiry consider the learnings of the COVID-19. Again, this insight is highly welcomed. The public commentary, actions and reported statements by both of you in your respective portfolios provide reassurance that we can have the dialogue that women affected by family and domestic violence require - but it must be done with a sense of urgency.
I left with nothing but our car. It is over three years, but it’s only just recently that our car has new tyres and it’s safe so are we) and back on the road. But the biggest change is that I could sleep at night.
Unfortunately, the findings and insights from the welcomed Inquiry into Family, Domestic and Sexual Violence will arrive too late to influence immediate budget decisions in the lead up to September and the October Federal Budget.
As you know, women have also been heavily affected by the dramatic economic and social crises of COVID-19. Women are disproportionately affected in terms of job loss and the crisis of care, both of children and older family members.
Our Key Recommendations
We urge the Federal Government to immediately introduce a range of income support-related measures to rapidly respond to the gendered nature of the current crisis.
1. Coronavirus Supplement
The first priority is to maintain the Coronavirus Supplement of $550 beyond 24 September 2020 until we get permanent, adequate increases to key income support payments including JobSeeker, Parenting and Family Payments and Commonwealth Rent Assistance. We need to work together to enhance the effectiveness of the income support system to enable women to forge a new and safe life, and one that will not force them to return to the hands of the abuser because they fall through the safety net. This remedy is achievable, and we can be guided by the Victorian Royal Commission and instructed through the current inquiry. We have ample ideas, willingness, and energy to advance this need.
2. Liquid Assets Waiting Period
It is vital that this is permanently abolished to prevent women at risk from having to draw on meagre savings before they can access lifeline social security payments. This is particularly critical during this unprecedented increase of family and domestic violence and noting that the ‘intent to claim’ was abolished - a practice that provided women with the opportunity to indicate that they will require income support. It was part of the fleeing for safety strategy.
3. Wait Periods
Waiting periods for income support should be permanently abolished as immediate access to income support is a key safety strategy.
4. Mutual obligations and Parent Next
The suspension of mutual obligations effective 23 March 2020 under ParentsNext was a measured and welcome step that reflects the unnecessary stress that parents with babies and young children experience. It should not return. It was identified by the ParentsNext Inquiry In its Trial and Subsequent Broader Rollout that suspension of a payment can occur in the presence of domestic violence and or homelessness, leading to the Committee`s Recommendation 5 (4.27). Whilst the Australian Human Rights Commission have called for the Framework that subjects participants to suspension, reduction, or cancellation of their Parenting Payment to be removed. As recent as 29th July 2020, NCSMC raised concerns regarding participants affected by family and domestic violence in relation to ParentsNext compliance at a Stakeholder meeting with the Department of Education, Skills and Employment.
5. Childcare
We urge the Government to reintroduce free childcare for women and their children escaping family and domestic violence considering the extraordinary pressures that they face as carers both of their children and, in many cases, older family members.
Urgent action is needed
We are getting a lot of feedback from women who are extremely anxious about the proposed cuts of $300 per fortnight to commence at the end of September. We are particularly alarmed about the effects this dramatic cut in income support will have on single mothers with children and the heightened risks this might place on these families, many of whom are already in very precarious financial conditions. We seek an urgent meeting to discuss these issues and the above recommendations to ensure women and their families are safe.
This post is part of the Women's Policy Action Tank initiative to analyse government policy using a gendered lens. View our other policy analysis pieces here.
Posted by @SusanMaury