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https://www.theguardian.com/society/2025/sep/19/nearly-one-in-three-single-parent-households-australia-live-in-poverty-hilda-report-shows>
"A major national survey has revealed a “silent crisis” among Australian
families, with nearly one-in-three single-parent households living in poverty.
The newly released statistical report on the long-running
Household, Income
and Labour Dynamics in Australia survey found that, after adjusting for
housing costs, 31.3% of single-parent families were living below the poverty
line in 2023.
This group is nearly three times more likely to be in poverty than two-parent
households, the survey showed.
The latest reported figure was down from a record high reported in 2022, but
was still well above the 25% share of single-parent households in poverty a
decade earlier and higher than the 28.3% in poverty in 2003.
Hilda’s co-director, Roger Wilkins, said the history of the survey revealed a
worsening trend over the past 10 to 15 years as changes under the Howard and
Gillard governments forced single parents – predominately mothers – off
parenting payments and on to less generous unemployment benefits.
Wilkins, from the Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research,
said a household was considered to be in poverty if its income after paying tax
and rent or the mortgage was less than half that of a middle-income household.
This relative measure of poverty was “a bit of a moving target. If average
living standards rise so does the poverty line,” Wilkins said.
“But average living standards haven’t been rising in recent years, so we can’t
really claim that as a defence on why we are not making progress.”
Wilkins said that despite evidence of a long-term policy failure, the issue of
climbing poverty among single parent households seemed to “have real trouble
getting any traction in the public consciousness”.
“It’s like this silent crisis in the community. It’s not some statistical
anomaly, it’s translating to real suffering experienced by a lot of people.”
“It’s a demographic group we should be concerned about.
“And it’s not just the single parents, it’s the children we are potentially
entrenching in long-term disadvantage and which is having all sorts of social
harms down the track.”"
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
