Couples in sights

THOUSANDS of loved-up couples exploiting the welfare system by claiming tens of thousands of dollars in singleparent payments will face tough new restrictions as part of a Federal Government crackdown on welfare cheats.

From September next year, feuding parents will have to find a third party to back up claims their relationship is over after the Department of Human Services estimated that up to 15,000 people in romantic relationships were incorrectly receiving singleparent payments.

Witnesses caught making a false declarations about a relationship could be jailed for up to a year.

Single parents are entitled to a base payment $264.50 a fortnight – or $6800 a year – more than parents in a recognised relationships.

Centrelink recognises marriages, same-sex and de facto relationships and customers with multiple partners but will only pay the single-parent payment where there has been a “physical as well as an emotional separation”.

In recent years a woman was jailed for two years after she claimed $90,326 in single parenting payments over a seven-year period. She was found to have repeatedly made false statements to Centrelink to hide the fact she was living with a man she later married.

Another woman, claiming to be a single mum, was jailed for 18 months after pleading guilty to fraudulently claiming more than $60,000 for single parent payments over eight years. The Government estimates 7400 parents receiving single-parent benefits will see their payments reduced and a further 7400 will have their payments axed.

The nation’s peak welfare body, the Australian Council of Social Service, described the policy as an overreach and an “unnecessary intrusion into people’s lives”.

Chief executive Dr Cassandra Goldie said 33 per cent of single parents live in poverty and are already forced to prove they have used up all their savings and are looking for work.