Calls mount to lift payment cut-off for single parents

Single parents are likely candidates for extra support as the federal government puts together a cost-of-living package in the budget targeted at the most vulnerable.

Finance Minister Katy Gallagher was unable to confirm the changes but the government is expected to lift the age of eligibility for assistance to when a parent's youngest child reaches the age of 13 or 14. The current threshold is when a youngest child turns eight.

At that point, parents are forced off the payment and on to the lower JobSeeker payment.

Senator Gallagher, who previously lived on the single-parent payment, said the government was considering recommendations on what the eligibility criteria should be.

The women's economic equality task force has called for the payment to be restored to the previous cut-off of a child turning 16.

The minister said the government had received a range of recommendations about what was appropriate.

"I 100 per cent understand the importance of these payments. They are life-changing and so important ... children don't just stop needing their parents," Senator Gallagher said.

Greens senator Larissa Waters said the cut-off should be restored to 16.

"Single parenting doesn't stop when a child turns eight, or 13, and neither should the single parenting payment," she said.

The Howard government began tightening eligibility limits in 2006 and the Gillard government continued this work in 2012.

"A decade on from this terrible decision it's time to overturn it and restore support to single parents until their kids turn 16," Senator Waters said. 

University of Technology Sydney academics Verity Firth and Carl Rhodes said reinstating support should not be seen as a cost but rather a long-term benefit to Australia.

They said the existing settings forced single-parent families into "extreme poverty", shrinking incomes by about $100 a week when children turn eight.

They noted many women on the payment are fleeing violent relationships.

"This half-measure of raising the age to 12, rather than 16, is not good enough," Professor Firth said.

The federal government has also been under pressure to lift the JobSeeker payment. 

Multiple government backbenchers have signed an open letter calling for the welfare payment to be increased after the government's economic inclusion committee recommended a substantial rise.

Senator Gallagher has not confirmed plans for JobSeeker in the budget, instead indicating there are difficult decisions to be made when the fiscal statement is handed down in less than two weeks.

"We are focused on making sure we can do the right thing for those that are doing it tough but within an environment where there are a lot of demands on the budget in a lot of areas," she told ABC Radio on Thursday.

She said the government had been listening to the concerns of backbench MPs who broke ranks in calling for JobSeeker to be increased.

The rate for JobSeeker sits at $49.50 a day, with the economic advisory committee calling for a rise of $90 a week.