Social Services Legislation Amendment (Family Payments Structural Reform and Participation Measures) Bill 2015

The National Foundation for Australian Women (NFAW) is dedicated to promoting and protecting the interests of Australian women, including intellectual, cultural, political, social, economic, legal, industrial and domestic spheres, and ensuring that the aims and ideals of the women’s movement and its collective wisdom are handed on to new generations of women.

NFAW is a feminist organisation, independent of party politics and working in partnership with other women’s organisations, including the national women’s alliances Equality Rights Alliance and Economic Security 4 Women. These organisations include those committed to increasing support for women in Australia as well as those with a special interest in women’s history.

NFAW is concerned about the effect of the changes to FTBB contained in the Bill on the poorest families in Australia, and particularly concerned about the effect on sole parents.

The first point that we would make is that the change to the primary earner income threshold from $150,000 to $100,000 was only implemented with effect from 1 July 2015. There is no data publicly available as yet as to the effect that this change has had on the number of eligible claimants, or the savings to the budget. The most recent data, in the DSS Statistical Paper no 12 relates to the 2013 income year when the primary earner income threshold was $150,000. It does not segregate the data into children over 13 or under 13, but it shows a disproportionate number of single parents receiving FTBB: 98% of sole parents receiving Family Tax Benefits received FTBB compared to 70% of partnered claimants.

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