The Implications of Child Support for Housing after Relationship Dissolution (original) (raw)

Post-Separation Parenting and Indigenous Families

Family Matters, 2012

The patterns and practices of post-separation parenting are central to ensuring children's ongoing wellbeing (Amato, 2000; Smyth, 2004). Yet, there is very little existing Australian literature on post-separation parenting practices among Indigenous families. On parenting arrangements, the only directly relevant literature is a presentation by Qu and Weston (2012) that compared the pre- and post-separation parenting circumstances of Indigenous and non-Indigenous mothers and fathers. This study found that separated Indigenous parents were younger, poorer, had younger children at the time of separation and were far more likely to be in a cohabiting rather than a married relationship at the time of separation. There is also a limited literature on the interaction of Indigenous families with the family law system. A 2004 article by Family Law Court Indigenous Family Consultant Steven Ralph, for example, details some unique aspects of Indigenous family law disputes. These include the extent of involvement of extended family in disputes, cultural issues around Indigenous affiliation and identity, and the lack of fit between norms of child access arrangements for many Indigenous families. More recently, the Family Law Council (2012) report, Improving the Family Law System for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Clients, found that family law system services are underutilised by Indigenous families and there is evidence of significant unmet need in Indigenous communities. The very few Indigenous practitioners in the field and the low levels of Indigenous cultural competence among non-Indigenous practitioners have exacerbated this gap. The literature on child support is even more scant, with the only identified literature being a 2010 presentation by Esler, Robertson, and Shipley (2010) on behalf of the Child Support Agency (CSA). Recognising a lack of knowledge of Indigenous families' interaction with the CSA, the authors suggested that the limited existing data indicated that Indigenous parents were more likely to be unemployed and paying or receiving low rates of child support than non-Indigenous CSA clients. The need for specific knowledge on how Indigenous families are negotiating the ongoing financial support of their children post-separation is of even greater import following the 2006 family law reforms. These reforms, among other objectives, included significant changes to how child support is calculated, paid and sought in order to encourage greater involvement of both parents in their children's lives following separation (Kaspiew et al., 2011). The evidence from these sources and the (albeit relatively) larger Australian literature on post-separation parenting (see, for example, Kaspiew et al., 2011; Ministerial Taskforce on Child Support, 2005; Parkinson, 2007; Smyth, 2004) suggest the direct applicability of their findings to Indigenous families is not a reasonable practice. Along with the aspects identified by Ralph (2004) and Qu and Weston (2012) above, socio-demographic data also indicate that Indigenous families, separated and together, have unique dimensions. Indigenous families are, for example, far more likely to be socio-economically disadvantaged, and more likely to live in extended family households, be a sole-parent family and record higher rates of ex-nuptial births (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare [AIHW], 2011). The main purpose of this paper is to use Footprints in Time: The Longitudinal Study of Indigenous Children (LSIC) to provide baseline descriptive information on the post-separation arrangements of Indigenous households, including: the number, proportion and characteristics of children who have a parent living elsewhere; the level and pattern of contact between children and parents living elsewhere; and the patterns of payment and receipt of child support for children.

It's Not Just About the Money': Non-resident Fathers' Perspectives on Paying Child Support

Sociology, 2010

This article explores the question ‘Why do fathers resist paying child support?’ through interviews with 26 separated or divorced non-residential fathers in Australia. Drawing on Zelizer’s typology we argue that the men in this study attempt to define child support as a gift — a payment that emphasizes the power and beneficence of the payer and the obligation of the receiver — but struggle to do so in legal and bureaucratic structures that position its receipt as an entitlement. The tension between child support as a gift and child support as entitlement is informed by gendered power over money, a key element of fathering in traditional and non-traditional family structures.The payment and non-payment of child support is used to reinforce the economic dimensions of fathering identities and define family relationships in remarkably traditional ways.

Security in Retirement The impact of housing and key critical life events

The proportion of aged persons in Australia is set to increase significantly, posing many challenges. Amongst these is the growing number of households who lack housing security in retirement. The Age Pension in Australia is set at a comparatively low rate compared to other developed countries, reflecting an historical period when home ownership rates were high. A decline in home ownership and the residualisation of the social housing sector, and the consequential increase in the proportion of low-income households in poorly regulated private rental housing however have meant the social insurance role of secure housing is not available to an increasing number of aged Australians. In this paper we examine tenure, wealth, gender, educational attainment and relationship status over time of recently retired Australians and those at midlife to identify key factors that influence households’ accumulation of wealth and thus their security in retirement. Using cross-sectional data from the Australian Bureau of Statistic’s Survey of Income and Housing, longitudinal data from the Household, Income Labour Dynamics Australia survey, and qualitative interviews with divorcees we find that gender, educational attainment, changes in relationship status and housing market conditions have a significant impact on wealth accumulation and tenure. Our findings indicate that social change, and adverse ‘critical life events’ (Stone et al 2015) have significant impacts on households by and at midlife, and beyond. Of particular concern is that the housing market itself is a key source of wealth accumulation and dispossession. A very marked outcome is that to be private renter at 45 years of age is likely to mean being a renter and highly impoverished, in retirement. The number and proportion of older, lone person households has increased dramatically albeit that men and women tend to have different trajectories into poverty.

The impact of welfare to work on parents and their children

When Welfare to Work activities for single parents were first introduced in the 2005 Commonwealth Budget, the primary claim was that these measures would increase individual wellbeing. A decade on, the veracity of this claim has yet to be comprehensively assessed. In this article, we systematically review the 41 Australian studies of income support recipients who were the primary carers of children, to examine the impacts of welfare-to-work on child and parent wellbeing. In line with the themes contained within these studies, we synthesized the findings related to three key areas of wellbeing: financial wellbeing; social connection and subjective wellbeing; and physical and psychological wellbeing. Academic research on the impact of Welfare to Work reforms on the wellbeing of single parents and their children presents an overwhelmingly negative picture whereby reforms have forced parents to participate in services that use 'work-first' and 'one size fits all', 'blanket' or 'rigid' approaches that do not help parents to meet their aspirations. Research also suggests that the reforms have decreased the financial wellbeing of single parents and their children, resulting in parents making the transition from welfare to work feeling less satisfied with their future security and standard of living, and higher poverty rates amongst the population of single parents with dependent children. However, there remain significant gaps in our understanding of how Welfare to Work affects parents and their children.

Welfare reform, housing assistance and effective marginal tax rates

A major objective of the recent tax and welfare reform agenda in Australian has been to ameliorate the disincentive effects of high effective marginal tax rates (EMTRs) faced by benefit recipients. This paper uses data from the Survey of Income and Housing Costs to illustrate how the distribution of EMTRs across individuals has varied between the years of 1982-83, 1996-97, 2000-01 and 2002-03. The impact of changes in the tax-benefit system on work incentives is then assessed by applying the real tax-benefit parameters from 1982-83, 1996-97 and 2002-03 to the household composition and income data from a base year (2000-01). In addition to providing comparable estimates across a considerable time span, two important features set this study aside from previous research estimating EMTRs in Australia: (1) the estimates are based on the actual circumstances of Australian households, rather than for selected 'hypothetical' households and income ranges; (2) the estimates fully inco...