A Canberra not-for-profit has welcomed a recommendation to abolish a controversial program which requires parents to complete tasks in order to receive their social welfare payments, slamming it for keeping women under surveillance.
ParentsNext is a mandatory program for parents receiving social welfare payments, who have not worked in six months.
It requires participants to agree to complete activities, as well attend regular appointments, in order to receive their Parenting Payment.
YWCA chief executive Frances Crimmins said these requirements create undue stress for participants, and retraumatise women who have escaped abusive relationships.
"What could be an enjoyable activity now has turned into an obligation and something to be reported on," Ms Crimmins said referring to mandated activities such as playgroups or swim classes.
"Parents reported that they felt that they were being put under surveillance for parenting activities.
"In particular, for women who've escaped violence, some describe the program as entering another abusive relationship."
Ms Crimmins also drew comparisons between the unlawful robodebt scheme and ParentsNext, which she said is underpinned by "flawed assumptions" about parents in need of financial support.
"One of those assumptions is that single mothers either selectively want to be unemployed, want to be welfare dependent or are simply disinterested in their future job outcomes," Ms Crimmins said.
"I think that follows the thinking on the design of robodebt."
She said the program's design to encourage parents back into work from the time children are aged nine months highlights that it does not value unpaid caring work.
On Monday, Labor MP Julian Hill presented an interim report in the House of Representatives recommending the program be abolished at the end of its current contracts in June 2024.
Mr Hill said the committee had heard evidence that the program was extremely polarising, throughout its inquiry.
"Some people really love and swear by it, and others are viscerally opposed to it," he said, adding that the committee had "reflected deeply" to reach its conclusions.
"The committee is very firmly of the view, unanimously of the view, that those reporting requirements and the punitive framework sitting around the program have to go," he said.
The report also recommend that the practice of suspending payments for not fulfilling activities be scrapped as soon as possible, with the government to consider the broader overhaul ahead of the 2023-2024 budget.
- Have you experienced the ParentsNext program? Contact miriam.webber@canberratimes.com.au
