It’s time to end the stigma around single mothers and recognise how courageous and resilient they are and how hard they work.
Our second Council of Single Mothers and their Children (CSMC) national survey and Navigating Turbulence Report reveals that in spite of doing all the right things, single mothers are not getting ahead. The sad fact for single mothers is a job and higher education are no guarantees of a liveable income and financial security.
Structural barriers are holding us back, it’s gendered, there’s a lack of time and opportunity, and the disadvantage in housing has only become more acute.
For us, the reality is that there is only one adult to do it all – earn an income, make decisions and run the household, while caring for children typically 12 days a fortnight. It’s an intense juggle. Being the primary carer for your kids during the working week limits paid work options and pushes many single mothers into casual work, which means no leave and no security.
Single mothers are in paid employment at similar rates to mothers with partners, however 61% of our survey respondents are raising their children on less than $60,000 a year, placing the majority below the national medium income of $65,000, many of them in dire poverty, with 87% concerned about their long-term financial wellbeing.
Our report is the largest survey of single mothers in Australia, undertaken in 2022 with 1168 respondents. The findings build on the responses of over 1000 single mothers in our first national survey, in 2018, and reflect the impacts of COVID and the burgeoning economic and housing crises.
The consequences during COVID on the casualised workforce were devastating, with single mothers losing paid hours – or having to give up work to homeschool and care for pre-schoolers – at five times the rate of couple families. We urgently need employers to return to permanent part-time jobs, with more roles of 24-30 hours per week suitable for all workers with caring responsibilities. The good news is that 65 per cent of respondents consider their workplaces supportive of single mothers – a positive starting place to expand workplace flexibility.
Survey respondents have an average age of 44 and an average of 1.9 children. They are doing all they can to provide a safe home and a bright future for their children; however, many external barriers are holding them back.
Family violence in all its forms is a significant issue for single mothers. Our society needs to address this outrage. Perpetrators go on with their lives while women are left struggling to protect their children and provide them with essentials like a roof over their heads. Sixty-seven per cent of respondents have experienced family violence. Of these 58 per cent report that it has impacted on their employment, half citing a strong impact. This is the long tail of family violence that slows financial recovery, which can take five to 10 years. Psychological recovery can take even longer. Coupled with the low levels of government benefits, it condemns these families to poverty or financial hardship and significantly heightens the risk of homelessness for these women as they age.
In 2023, in a significant win resulting from a decade of advocacy, access to the Parenting Payment Single was raised to when the youngest child turns 14 years old, up from eight. This is a big improvement, although government payments remain below the poverty line. A further policy limitation on economic wellbeing is how much a single parent can earn before their payment is reduced or cut, which prevents single mothers with low incomes from getting ahead through a combination of their wage (often insecure) and the social security net. Seventy-two percent of all respondents expressed difficulty in meeting their general cost of living expenses, across all income levels even prior to the current cost-of-living crisis taking hold.
We know that the ultimate casualty of poverty is children. Evidence over time shows it is not the number or gender of the parent that does harm, but the poverty experienced by 44 per cent of children in single parent households, compared to 13 per cent in couple families. It limits their full engagement in school, reduces or eliminates chances of extra-curricular activities, makes family holidays a mere dream, and dims their future opportunities. To help counter this, public schools should be genuinely free to make it a level playing field for children from all circumstances.
Housing is difficult for many at the moment; it is nigh on impossible for single mothers. With 43 per cent of survey respondents in the private rental market, 9 per cent with insecure tenure of less than six months, many families are paying upwards of 50 per cent of their income in rent. Most are struggling to compete with double income applicants. Our survey found single-mother families are experiencing homelessness or marginal housing at almost four times the national average, with some women earning over $100,000 a year forced to live with their children in caravan parks or even tents when their many applications for rental properties fail. Some women are forced to include their abuser’s name on rental applications because joint applications are more successful than those by a single mother. The algorithms used by real estate agents must be reviewed, and all governments must prioritise more investment in social and affordable housing. More energy efficient public housing is needed to provide security and reduce energy bills.
Forty per cent of respondents live in a home they either own outright or with a mortgage. Ironically, many more could afford to service a mortgage, given the high rents they pay (could even be cheaper) but they either can’t afford to save the deposit or even with a deposit, can’t secure finance. Banks and governments can do much more to help women who can afford to buy a home; so they can avoid homelessness and poverty as they age.
All of these challenges are compounded for the high percentage of single mothers living with a disability and/or raising a child with a disability. Nearly eight in 10 have experienced family violence, compared with the six out of 10 respondents who do not have a disability or a child with a disability. Their long-term housing security and their outcomes in the family law system are also reduced.
There is no one more motivated than a single mother to protect and provide for her children. The lived reality of single mothers is one of determination and resilience, sometimes against the greatest odds. Many are exhausted. Negative stereotypes are demeaning misconceptions that we don’t deserve.
Look around you. There is a hard-working single mother nearby who is heading up one of 834,000 families in Australia on her own, and she’s doing the best she can. It’s time to give single mothers the respect they deserve.