Calls to equalise support payments for parents grieving stillborn child

A mother who lost her twins – one to stillbirth and one minutes after he was born – says the support payment program in Australia that places a different dollar value on each of her children must change.

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A mother who lost her twins – one to stillbirth and one minutes after he was born – says the support payment program in Australia that places a different dollar value on each of her children must change.

Parents who have a stillborn child are not eligible for an income tested bereavement payment of between $1,500 and $2,700 and are instead offered a lump sum of $2,239.86, which is reduced to $1,120.56 for any subsequent stillbirths.

It’s a system Labor and the Greens are seeking to change by co-sponsoring a motion in the Senate on Monday calling on the federal government to equalise financial support provided to grieving parents.

The funding is designed to assist with autopsy expenses, funeral costs and counselling.

“The grief and stress experienced by parents and families in response to a stillbirth is no less than that experienced in response to the death of a child,” the motion will say.

Parents who lose a child after birth are given a different support payment to those with a stillborn baby.

Port Macquarie mum Jacqueline Hoy said she didn’t even know there was a support payment available to her when she lost her twins in 2017, let alone that the funding amount would differ depending on when they died.

“Henry was stillborn, and his twin brother William was born one minute after that with a feint heart beat so he was classed as deceased, so does that mean one of my twin’s lives is worth more than the other,” she said.

“How can they place a dollar value on one child and not the other, the trauma is no less.”

Ms Hoy, who is raising three sons, said the government needed to increase awareness of stillbirth and the support available to both parents and the medical community.

Parents Jonnie and Jacqueline Hoy with Edward, 5, Alexander, 21-months and Lachlan, 10. Mr Hoy is holding a picture of twins Henry, who was stillborn and William who died shortly after birth.

Labor’s health spokesman Chris Bowen said the government would have the party’s “full support” in equalising the payments and implementing recommendations from the Senate Stillbirth Inquiry.

“It is only fair that the bereavement payment for parents of stillborn children is equal,” he said.

“Likewise it is only fair for subsequent stillborn baby payments for to be equal.”

The government responded to the Inquiry in July, agreeing entirely or in principle to all 16 recommendations, none of which directly addressed support payments.

The government has spent more than $4 million this year rolling out its Safer Baby Bundle program to increase education about stillbirths.

Stillbirth Foundation Australia chief Leigh Brezler said there was no reason parents of a stillborn child should be treated differently than others.

“Six Australian families every day deal with a stillbirth,” she said.

“(They) need the same financial support, the same leave entitlements and the same certainty available to a parent of a live born baby.”

Originally published as Calls to equalise support payments for parents grieving stillborn child