It’s so hard to live on Newstart that women are forced back to their abusive partners

Newstart is so low that women fleeing violent homes are forced to return there to avoid poverty.

• Grim new data on domestic violence in SA

Women fleeing abusive partners are forced to return to them because of the low Centrelink payments, the SA-based National Council of Single Mothers and their Children says, calling it "intolerable".

Trying to leave a violent partner is hard enough, the Council has told the Federal Government’s inquiry into Newstart, without being driven into poverty.

Making matters worse, those who are eligible for the single parenting allowance lose it when their youngest child turns eight.

That means they are forced to live on Newstart, which is about $100 a week less.

They want women affected by domestic violence to be able to get crisis payments of $6000 to $9000, along with other changes.

Chief executive officer Therese Edwards said it was often when they feared for their lives and their children’s safety that women fled, but building a new life could be so expensive that returning to live under the roof of their abuser was the only option.

“In surveys that we do, the repeated theme is that women go back to the hands of their abuser and the place of their abuse – because of finances,” she said.

“Leaving is so hard in the first place. An inconvenient reality is that there are often more expenses, medical expenses, legal expenses. Most people understand how costly it is to relocate.

“Putting on new utilities ... It is such an expensive time in women’s lives and then everything might be just do-able and their littlest turns eight ...”

Ms Edwards said it “makes no sense” that a single woman was paid less and expected to do more when her youngest child turned eight, an “arbitrary” age.

The council is calling for the Parenting Payment Single for families to remain until the youngest child turns 16, for exemptions from mutual obligations to job hunt, an overall increase to Newstart, an upfront crisis payment of up to $9000, and other changes.

A range of women have told of their struggles living on Newstart.

One said the “stress of living and trying to support a child on Newstart was so bad it was “on par with the stress of suffering from DV”.

“Ruined my child’s life and forced me to stay longer in a very violent relationship,” said another.

The Federal Government will respond to the inquiry into the adequacy of Newstart’s findings next year but has so far rejected the idea of increasing Newstart.