Baby leave cuts hurt low-paid
Thousands of low-paid women will be worse off because of the Federal Government's crackdown on so-called double-dipping of paid parental leave, bureaucrats have confirmed.
About 45,000 new mums who faced having their taxpayer- funded leave entitlement slashed were earning a median income of $43,000, a Senate Estimates hearing was told yesterday.
The Government announced in last month's Budget that it would tighten eligibility for taxpayer-funded paid parental leave from July next year and pump almost $1 billion of savings into child care.
New parents would no longer be able to claim 18 weeks of taxpayer-funded parental leave worth $11,800 if their employer offered an equivalent amount or more from July next year.
If their employer's scheme pays less than this, the Government will top up the payment to the $11,800 threshold.
The Government argues the end of double-dipping is aimed at women in high-paid jobs with generous maternity benefits.
_The West Australian _revealed last month that retail workers earning little more than $40,000 a year stood to lose thousands of dollars if their employer offered modest baby leave schemes.
Full-time checkout operators at Coles and Woolworths would lose about $6300 and $6550 respectively and a shop assistant at Ikea would be almost $12,000 worse off.
Labor senator Jacinta Collins quizzed Department of Social Services bureaucrats yesterday, saying the changes would hit many women in low-paid roles.
"Any sense that what is involved here is double-dipping is extremely insulting," she said.
Department of Social Services group manager for families, Phil Brown, admitted that "some will be affected where they have access to an existing scheme", though department secretary Finn Pratt said the extra spending on childcare assistance should be taken into account.
Figures provided to the hearing revealed the median income for the 45,000 women who in the first year of changes will have the government-funded contribution of PPL reduced is $43,000, with 62 per cent of them from the private sector. The 34,000 women who will lose the whole government payment as their employer's leave scheme is more generous earn a median $73,000.
About 90,000 women will be unaffected because their employer does not pay for parental leave. Almost two-thirds of the affected women who will have their payments reduced are employed by private enterprise.
Officials undermined Social Services Minister Scott Morrison's claim parents had not increased time off to bond with their baby since the scheme, saying low-paid women had spent more time at home.
