There are days where Julie wakes up and her heart starts pounding straight away. “And I’m not even properly awake enough to know what it is.” Then the Melbourne single mother of two remembers what she’s worried about – money.
Julie has a daughter completing year 11 and a son in grade 1. She shares care with her son’s father, but her daughter’s dad has never really been around. A counsellor, Julie started her own business just before Covid hit, and since then, the work has been up and down. She’s currently on jobseeker as her clients have once again dropped away with Melbourne’s latest lockdown. She is now eating into her savings, but feels lucky to have them.
Families in lockdown are experiencing pressure on all fronts, but for single parents the toll is all the greater without a partner to provide financial and emotional back up, or even just another physical presence in the house to give them precious minutes alone.
Financial and employment burden
Many of Australia’s one million single parents – 80% of them women – were already in financial distress before Covid, but according to research released by the Grattan Institute earlier this year, employment for single parents fell more than 10% between December 2019 and September 2020, and about 50,000 single parents dropped out of the workforce altogether during the first lockdown. Many single parents had not recovered from last year’s blows before they were plunged back into lockdowns this year.
“Lockdowns hit single parents harder because they are disproportionately employed in sectors impacted by lockdowns like hospitality and retail and also because their caring responsibilities make it harder for them to maintain hours of paid work when schools and childcare are closed and some informal care networks (like grandparents) are off limits,” says Danielle Wood, CEO of the Grattan Institute.
And despite the vulnerability of such a large cohort of people, there is no extra government assistance on offer.
“The coronavirus supplement is no longer in place for those on single parenting payment meaning those without supplementary income are back living below the poverty line,” says Wood. “Many that supplement parenting payment with income from work will have lost work or hours due to Covid health restrictions. While they may get access to the $200-a-week disaster supplement, it is unlikely to replace the income lost for most so they will also be doing it tough.”
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