How has welfare to work reform affected the mental health of single parents in Australia?

Concerns raised about the inadequacy of income support payments in Australia have chiefly centred on the increased poverty experienced by highly vulnerable recipients, such as single parents. This poverty not only increases the risk of social exclusion, but has broader implications for health and wellbeing.This research was funded through a grant - ARC Grant #DP120101887

LEGAL FORUM: MMP: Aligning the Judicial and Parliamentary Functions

The advent of MMP may make a considerable difference to the way law is practised in New Zealand. It will change both the policy making environment and will ultimately change aspects of the legal environment. In essence, MMP is going to alter the distribution of public power in New Zealand. The changes in the way our system of government operates will have significant implications for the legislative process, decision making within the executive government and it is suggested, the role of judiciary and the legal profession. The focus of this paper is the possible impact of MMP on the alignment of our parliamentary and judicial functions. On the issue of policy making I will discuss the extent to which these roles may overlap and the desirability of such an occurrence. As a case study I will discuss the impact of judicial activism in the context of New Zealand's employment contracts legislation. Finally, I will examine the role of lawyers as advisors in the new regime

Discrimination and Human Rights: An Overview of Remedies

Up until 10 August 1993, New Zealand's anti-discrimination law consisted of three statutes: The Employment Contracts Act 1991, The Race Relations Act 1971 and The Human Rights Commission Act 1977. There is also the Equal Pay Act 1972, which abolished gender based wage differentials in industrial awards but this is of less practical significance now and accordingly is not considered further. The Human Rights Act 1993 repeats and replaces the latter two Acts from 1 February 1994. The new Act provides protection from discrimination not only in the employment relationship, but also in such areas as the provisions of goods and services, accommodation, advertising and access to public places. In the employment context, the new Act mirrors the protection provided by the Employment Contracts Act and in some areas strengthens it. The two Acts stand alongside one another providing alternative routes for the aggrieved employee. The existence of two regimes means that an act of discrimination may result in proceedings under either statute with different remedies. It is therefore necessary to examine both statutes when considering remedies

One Year of Practise with the Act

The introduction of the Employment Contracts Act 1991 marked a fundamental change in New Zealand Industrial Law. This change is clearly reflected in the introductions to the Act and its predecessor

The Health and Safety in Employment Act 1992 - An Overview

The Health and Safety in Employment Act 1992 (HSE Act or the Act) is a legislative initiative designed to address the problems posed by the previous statutory regimes. In essence this can be reduced to three objectives: a shift in financial responsibility from government to employers, a need for stricter enforcement, and a centralisation of the law

Discrimination in Focus

In the fust two or three decades after the Second World War there was a considerable movement internationally to address issues relating to the well being of people in the work force. Part of this overall thrust saw the development in many countries of comprehensive health and safety legislation of the type that New Zealand has just introduce

Social disadvantage and individual vulnerability: a longitudinal investigation of welfare receipt and mental health in Australia

OBJECTIVE: To examine longitudinal associations between mental health and welfare receipt among working-age Australians. METHOD: We analysed 9 years of data from 11,701 respondents (49% men) from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) Survey. Mental health was assessed by the mental health subscale from the Short Form 36 questionnaire. Linear mixed models were used to examine the longitudinal associations between mental health and income support adjusting for the effects of demographic and socio-economic factors, physical health, lifestyle behaviours and financial stress. Within-person variation in welfare receipt over time was differentiated from between-person propensity to receive welfare payments. Random effect models tested the effects of income support transitions. RESULTS: Socio-demographic and financial variables explained the association between mental health and income support for those receiving student and parenting payments. Overall, recipients of disability, unemployment and mature age payments had poorer mental health regardless of their personal, social and financial circumstances. In addition, those receiving unemployment and disability payments had even poorer mental health at the times that they were receiving income support relative to the times when they were not. The greatest reductions in mental health were associated with transitions to disability payments and parenting payments for single parents. CONCLUSIONS: The poor mental health of welfare recipients may limit their opportunities to gain work and participate in community life. In part, this seems to reflect their adverse social and personal circumstances. However, there remains evidence of a direct link between welfare receipt and poor mental health that could be due to factors such as welfare stigma or other adverse life events coinciding with welfare receipt for those receiving unemployment or disability payments. Understanding these factors is critical to inform the next stage of welfare reform.PB was funded by NHMRC fellowship 525410. This paper was funded by the Australian Research Council grant DP120101887 and uses unit record data from the HILDA Survey. The HILDA project was initiated and is funded by the Australian Government Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs (FaHCSIA)

The contribution of financial hardship, socioeconomic position and physical health to mental health problems among welfare recipients

Recent changes to income support payments for single parents have prompted public debate about the financial adequacy of Newstart allowance and other welfare payments. Currently, the Newstart Allowance for a single person with no dependents is $501.00 per fortnight. The inadequacy of these payments has been highlighted by studies estimating that recipients of unemployment payments spend 122% of their income on daily living expenses, and 75% of Newstart recipients are reported to live in extreme poverty. Given that common psychiatric disorders occur more frequently among welfare recipients relative to the general population, and that financial hardship and socioeconomic disadvantage are key correlates of mental disorders, the types of welfare reforms recently introduced can have real implications for population health and wellbeing.This research was funded through a grant - ARC Grant #DP120101887

Mental health selection and income support dynamics: multiple spell discrete-time survival analyses of welfare receipt

BACKGROUND The higher occurrence of common psychiatric disorders among welfare recipients has been attributed to health selection, social causation and underlying vulnerability. The aims of this study were to test for the selection effects of mental health problems on entry and re-entry to working-age welfare payments in respect to single parenthood, unemployment and disability. METHODS Nationally representative longitudinal data were drawn from the Household Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia survey. Multiple spell discrete-time survival analyses were conducted using multinomial logistic regression models to test if pre-existing mental health problems predicted transitions to welfare. Analyses were stratified by sex and multivariate adjusted for mental health problems, father’s occupation, socioeconomic position, marital status, employment history, smoking status and alcohol consumption, physical function and financial hardship. All covariates were modelled as either lagged effects or when a respondent was first observed to be at risk of income support. RESULTS Mental health problems were associated with increased risk of entry and re-entry to disability, unemployment and single parenting payments for women, and disability and unemployment payments for men. These associations were attenuated but remained significant after adjusting for contemporaneous risk factors. CONCLUSIONS Although we do not control for reciprocal causation, our findings are consistent with a health selection hypothesis and indicate that mental illness may be a contributing factor to later receipt of different types of welfare payments. We argue that mental health warrants consideration in the design and targeting of social and economic policies.This paper was funded by the Australian Research Council (ARC) grant DP120101887 and uses unit record data from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) Survey. The HILDA Project was initiated and is funded by the Australian Government Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs (FaHCSIA)

Discrimination and Human Rights: An Overview of Remedies

Up until 10 August 1993, New Zealand's anti-discrimination law consisted of three statutes: The Employment Contracts Act 1991, The Race Relations Act 1971 and The Human Rights Commission Act 1977. There is also the Equal Pay Act 1972, which abolished gender based wage differentials in industrial awards but this is of less practical significance now and accordingly is not considered further. The Human Rights Act 1993 repeats and replaces the latter two Acts from 1 February 1994. The new Act provides protection from discrimination not only in the employment relationship, but also in such areas as the provisions of goods and services, accommodation, advertising and access to public places. In the employment context, the new Act mirrors the protection provided by the Employment Contracts Act and in some areas strengthens it. The two Acts stand alongside one another providing alternative routes for the aggrieved employee. The existence of two regimes means that an act of discrimination may result in proceedings under either statute with different remedies. It is therefore necessary to examine both statutes when considering remedies