1. Exploring the cost of Welfare Conditionality on women & children
Presented by Susan Maury, Juanita McLaren, & David Tennant
OPEN Sector Research Symposium, 30 October 2017

3. Conditionality & Families
Barriers to employment:
Parenting duties
Insufficient & unsustainable welfare payments
Jobs were unsuitable – precarious, low-paying, no career pathway
Experiences of conditionality:
Stressful
Demeaning
Frustrating
Inconsistent
Tick and flick
Amicable but useless
Waste of time

4. Conditionality & Communities
Shepparton trial
Single mothers with young children are struggling the most
Failure to meet conditionality puts payments at risk
Broader community impacts mirror other welfare trial sites
Benefit recipients experience stigma, less deserving of rights & protections

5. Advocacy opportunities
Illuminate where structures and policies are creating barriers to thriving
Listen to clients, give voice to their stories
Facilitate sharing how punitive policies have an adverse effect (in ways that feel safe to them)
Write or visit politicians
Treating Families Fairly – convened by the Centre for Excellence