Tomorrow, Economic Justice Australia (EJA) will launch its milestone report into the various barriers that face women living in regional, rural, remote and very remote (4R) Australia when trying to access their social security entitlements.
The first in a three-part report series, Social Security for Women Outside Our Cities: Service Delivery Barriers draws on extensive research, as well as consultation with more than 160 community workers from 96 service providers nationwide. The result is a roadmap to Government for ensuring women are not excluded from essential support because of where they live.
Women make up just over half of all social security recipients nationally, but are dramatically overrepresented in certain payment categories – for example, 94 per cent of Parenting Payment Single recipients and 71 per cent of Carer Payment recipients are women. This means women are shouldering a significant administrative burden managing these payments, often in contexts where accessing services is increasingly difficult.
The report examined the fundamental question of why women in 4R areas are struggling to access and maintain their social security entitlements; an issue that is made more significant by the fact one quarter of women in 4R areas have a personal income of under $400 per week.
Interviews conducted with community workers are included throughout the report, highlighting their first-hand experience and demonstrating this is an issue that goes far beyond abstract policy:
Centrelink’s answer is always ‘go online, go online’. But for a lot of reasons … some people don’t want to [go] online and also, it’s a very white lens to expect that everybody has a phone with credit on it or internet or a laptop and the digital literacy to do all of those things. It’s just a wildly inaccessible service and then they just don’t seem to be too interested in making it more accessible. It’s like it’s a punishment to access the payment.
— Remote Northern Territory
They come to us as someone [experiencing] domestic violence needing safety. They don’t have access to money because they don’t have ID. They need to go to Centrelink … Centrelink sends them back. They come back here angrier, heightened. And that’s a vicious cycle.
— Rural Queensland
Sometimes safety is an issue [with myGov]. Obviously if women are still on and off with a partner or if he’s got access to her myGov and she’s applying for a payment, we don’t want him to be able to see that in case it’s part of her plan to leave.
— Regional New South Wales
This first report also makes 119 specific policy recommendations for reform that would help ensure geographic location doesn’t determine the ability to claim. In the coming months, EJA will be releasing the two remaining reports in the series, which focus on substantive law and policy reforms distinct from service delivery.
We are actively working with communities, governments, and stakeholders to implement these recommendations. It is clear from this election campaign that social security reform is not a priority for either major party. This is disappointing, and not good enough given how severe and widespread the human impact of these policy decisions are.
The launch of report one will take place at 10am on Thursday 1 May at Darwin Community Legal Centre. Should media be interested in attending the launch, please RSVP using the contact details below.
The full report is available as a PDF here.
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Media contact: Kirsty Sier | 0435 075 085 | kirsty@ejaustralia.org.au