Support beyond the legalities of family separation.
Government benefits
All single parents are eligible for some financial assistance from the government.
Financial support can include a parenting pension, family tax, and rent assistance.
Your assets are taken into consideration when determining how much you’ll get, as are child support payments, and how much time the children spend with each parent. Nights, not days, are used as the basis for calculating a % of care that all payments and entitlements are then based on.
5 is the new magic number – so if one parent spends 5 nights a fortnight with their children, you’re in shared care for all government related formulas used for calculating what you’ll get and pay towards your children’s expenses.
JET is available for parents looking for work, or returning to work or study. It’s an extra benefit towards the costs of child care paid directly to the child care program you use, for a set period of time.
EMA is an education allowance provided twice a year to low income families. Part of it goes directly to the school, and part of it comes to you. You need to apply at set times in the year, and forms are available from your children’s school.
Pension cards or health care cards are given to you if you are on certain benefit payments.
They allow you discounts on medical services, medication, public transport, entry to venues and events, car registration, and some utility services either ongoingly, or for set events such as connecting services to a new property.
Centrelink can also provide consultations with their financial specialists.
Contact Centrelink for more details about what you may be entitled to, and how to apply for it.
Child Support options
You can agree who will pay for what with your ex, and formalise it by lodging an agreement with the child support agency.
A legally binding agreement can give you certainty for a set period of time, and is enforceable.
The Child Support Agency can collect child support payments for you monthly, or you can have a private collection arrangement.
If you have a private arrangement, it can be more difficult to get back payments owed if they fall behind, than if CSA collect for you.
CSA have a formula that decides how much each parent pays or receives in child support.
Like all others, it’s a complex formula, and looks at things like the income of both parents, how much it costs to raise a child at certain ages, how much people need to live on before spending money on their children, and how much time the children spend with each parent. There’s a calculator on their website that will help you look at how much child support you may need to pay, or should receive.
Contact the Child Support Agency for more information.
Single parent social groups
Amongst work, parenting, and the legalities of separation, you need to get out with, and without your children.
Joining a single parent group is a great way to get yourself and your kids active and socialising again. And the best part about them, is they are full of people just like you.
Some groups focus on support and activities for the parents, some focus on the kids, and others do a good mix of catering to both.
Our favourite single parent social groups at the moment are:
Single Parents Active Kids – a group started in Melbourne 3 years ago by a single dad, that runs both family and parent only events. They offer 4-5 events a week throughout Melbourne, and around 10 camps a year. This year they have another week long camp planned at the Gold Coast.
Click on the link above to visit their website, or call Moush on 0430 504 119 for more information.
Parentlink and dadslink – parts of the YMCA organisation in Victoria, that run mostly family events. They run camps throughout the year at the YMCA sites so there’s giant swings, flying foxes, archery, and lots more of those old favourites you remember from your school camp days. They also run weekend activities, parent clinics and workshops.
Click on the link above to visit their website, or call 03 9403 5000 for more information.
Support beyond the legalities of family separation
Physical, emotional, and financial supports are all needed as you head into a new phase of life.
Physically, it can be demanding providing care for children by yourself – whether it’s a few days at a time, a week at a time, or full time. There’s no easily accessible physical support available for single parents that we’ve found via government or not for profit organisations, but we’ll let you know if we find any. You can sometimes find some support from local church or community groups, but your friends and family, and your children’s friends families, are the best places to start.
Emotionally, you experience one of the greatest stressors known in life when you separate. No-one dreams of becoming a single parent, so there’s loss, grief, guilt, anger, and so much more that you’ll experience many times over, especially in the first year of separation. Different things work for different people, so explore and find out what’s going to work for you and your children.
There’s counsellors, psychologists, support groups, life coaches, meditation, mindfulness, and more.
Speak to your GP for a local recommendation, and ask about the governments Better Access program which can provide a medicare rebate to cover most or all of the costs of getting some therapy for 6-12 sessions a year.
You need financial stability for yourself and your children. Contact Centrelink and the Child Support Agency as soon as possible after separating, to find out what financial support you’re entitled to. If you have an existing mortgage, explore your options on accessing property equity, and extending your existing mortgage as a method of accessing some cash. Mortgage brokers can help find you the best deal available on mortgages and short term personal loans, and they don’t usually charge you as they get paid by the financial institutions they sign business up to. Financial planners can help you with a broader view of both your short term, and longer term financial needs and goals. They usually charge you for preparing a plan, but it can be a good investment if you want long term financial security.
There are plenty of people out there who want to help you, but finding them isn’t always easy.
Click here for Legal Beavers help in connecting you to a pool of local support.