Michael Brennan (Progressive Democrats)

I will have to get back to Senator Terry on the precise figure in this regard. I understand some 14% of fathers are making payments, an alarmingly low figure. We only deal with those persons on welfare because there are many private arrangements about which we know nothing, involving people who are not customers of the Department. One of the reasons this figure is so low is that many of the fathers, like many of the mothers, are in receipt of welfare. The Department has not done much in the past, as an administrative matter, to pursue fathers who are themselves on welfare. We have not taken a hard line on that. Whether we should or not is something we must discuss.

The Department's records indicate that approximately 9,600 recipients of the one-parent family payment are in receipt of maintenance from their spouse or the other parent of their children. Many other recipients, however, could be in receipt of maintenance and still qualify for the maximum rate of one-parent family payment as a result of the provision allowing claimants to retain 50% of any maintenance received. It is an important point that they are allowed to keep 50% of any maintenance received without it affecting their lone parent allowance. We would not want maintenance to become an issue in reducing people's lone parent allowance. This does not detract from the fact that the number of fathers contributing in the welfare area is alarmingly low. It is something I intend to look at in the new year.