Work Participation Issues for Sole parents

National Council of Single Mothers and their Children carried out a small survey of single mothers in June 2001 as part of the project. A brief quantitative questionnaire sought details of mothers' family, work and education status, the barriers to work they faced and the help they wanted.

The survey tests the perceived demand for initiatives aimed at single parents in the Australians Working Together package announced in the Federal Budget in May 2001. The Australians Working Together initiative aims to provide single parents with access to an annual interview and a participation plan to increase their workforce participation. The survey explores whether lack of information is a major problem for single mothers' workforce participation relative to other identified barriers, and tests the perceived relative benefits of an annual interview and participation plan as a means of assisting single parents to get work.

The results of this survey are summarised below.
The sample was self-selected from a national email list distribution and users of the SPARK Resource Centre for single parents in Adelaide South Australia during June 2001. About the sample:

· Thirty-five mothers from around Australia were surveyed.
· The average age of respondents was 36.
· The average age of their eldest child was ten
· 66% had one or two children.
· 91% lived in a metropolitan area
· 66% had completed a post-secondary qualification.
· 63% were participating in paid work, with two thirds of these working on a casual or part-time basis.
· 94% received some Centrelink income
· 54% had received some child support in the past 12 months
· Income alienation was the most common child support avoidance strategy used by payers
· 12% relied on public transport
· 31% had a health problem or disability affecting themselves or a child
· 69% had ever experienced domestic violence or post separation violence

The survey sought to identify the different impacts of selected workforce barriers, inviting respondents to rate the impact of each barrier on a three point scale ranging from 'no impact' to 'some impact' to 'a great deal' of impact. The following table shows the cumulative percentages for 'some impact' and 'a great deal' of impact in decreasing order.

WORKFORCE BARRIERS	% IMPACT
Children's Needs	91
Cost of Child Care	76
Cost of Training	76
Lack of jobs	70
Lack of Child care	63
Family stress / court / violence	59
Child safety	56
Lack of Skills	53
Lack of Information	47
Lack of Transport	34

Lack of family support, racism and the cost of transport were other identified barriers to workforce participation for a small number of participants.

As the above table shows, children's needs had the biggest impact on mothers' workforce participation, followed by the costs of childcare and the costs of training for the workforce. Lack of jobs, lack of child care and family stress arising from court proceedings or violence also negatively affected the workforce participation of more than two-thirds of respondents. Half of the women who had experienced violence found that family stress impacted 'a great deal' on their workforce participation.

More than half of the sample perceived that lack of information had 'no impact' on their workforce participation. An implication of this finding is that compulsory annual interviews to provide single parents with information about their workforce options are unlikely to significantly affect workforce participation rates.

Respondents were invited to rate the different impacts of selected workforce participation supports on a three point scale ranging from 'no impact' to 'some impact' to 'a great deal' of impact. The following table shows the cumulative percentages for 'some impact' and 'a great deal' of impact in decreasing order.

WORKFORCE SUPPORT	% IMPACT
Reduce poverty traps on earnings	94
More flexibility from employers	91
Reduce costs of training	85
Reduce costs of child care	82
More Jobs	79
Improve access to child care	79
Provide services for teenagers	70
Counselling support for children	70
Increase HECS repayment threshold	68
Access to more training choices	66
Improve safety from violence	58
Improved public transport	51
Annual career planning interview	48
A participation plan from Centrelink	27

The most useful support to assist single parents to participate in paid work was to reduce poverty traps on earnings. This indicates that the Working Credit initiative in the Australians Working Together package is likely to have a strong positive impact on single parents' workforce participation. Respondents also strongly endorsed the need for more jobs and for increased flexibility from employers to enable workers to fit work demands in with family demands.

Other initiatives endorsed by more than two-thirds of respondents included reduced costs of training and childcare, a higher threshold for HECS repayment for students with dependents, as well as improved access to childcare and wider training choices.

More than two thirds of respondents also wanted access to services for teenagers and improved access to counselling services for children to better enable them to deal with family changes. Most women who had survived violence saw improved safety for families as an important factor enabling them to seek and sustain paid work.

Significantly, an annual career planning interview and a participation plan from Centrelink received the lowest ratings by respondents.

Mothers want to work when their family needs allow and when the job opportunities are there for them.

I'm 32 with two boys, aged 3 and 6, and I have worked full time since the oldest was 6 months old. I had only a six weeks break with the second child, and tend to measure myself by what I give to work, my kids, friends, etc. I have a good job, which will finish in 4 months. I'm struggling between what I can do (career wise) and what I really want to do (spend more time with my kids, work part time). When I am feeling sad I have a good cry then look in the mirror and say YOU ARE NOT ALONE, YOU HAVE TWO BEAUTIFUL CHILDREN AND TOGETHER THE THREE OF YOU WILL MAKE THE MOST OF EACH DAY AS IF IT WAS THE LAST DAY OF YOUR LIFE. Money and work are important, but they are not everything. YOU ARE! (Single mother of two children).

Funded under the National Women's Non-Government Organisation's Funding Programme, by the Office of the Status of Women, Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet