The figures are in. Low and middle income families, old-age pensioners and carers are the big winners in tonight’s budget, while high earning families will see their health and family benefits reduced. While progressive steps have been made in regards to the introduction of paid maternity leave and increased funding for midwifery services, private obstetrician and IVF rebates have been drastically cut.
How will your family be affected? We’ve gathered the detail on the major family and pregnancy-related changes, and have the details for you below. Let us know what you think of Treasurer Wayne Swan’s new budget in the comments section.
Paid Maternity Leave
As announced on Mother’s Day, Paid parental leave will be introduced from January 1, 2011, at the federal minimum wage, currently $543.78 a week, for up to 18 weeks.
Parents who receive this payment will not be eligible for the Baby Bonus, except in cases of multiple births where parents will not receive the Baby Bonus for only the first child.
Parental leave payments will be taxable and will have an impact on the parents’ entitlement to family assistance payments, but will not be deemed income for income support payments.
Parents who choose not to receive the paid parental leave or who do not qualify will still receive the Baby Bonus and other family payments.
Primary carers will be eligible for paid parental leave if they earn less than $150,000 in the full financial year prior to the birth or adoption of a child, have worked at least 330 hours over the 10 months preceding the birth or adoption of a child and have worked continuously with one or more employers for at least 10 of the 13 months before the expected date of birth or adoption.
In some cases, the paid parental leave will be able to be transferred to another caregiver if the primary carer returns to work early.
Families Minister Jenny Macklin has attempted to justify the fact that a high-income woman with a poor partner would miss out on the payment, while a poorer woman with a billionaire husband would receive it.
“Paid parental leave is a workforce entitlement, so eligibility is connected with the individual worker,” she said.
Child care
In a move welcomed by working women, the rumours of the Child Care Rebate becoming means-tested were untrue (or perhaps intense lobbying made a difference!) It will remain at a 50% rebate on fees capped at $7200 per child, per year.
Baby bonus and Family tax benefits
The top income limit for family payments will be frozen at $150,000 combined income until 2012.
The payments themselves will continue to be indexed, though the government will bring Family Tax Benefit A into line with the other payments by linking it to the consumer price index rather than the couple pension rate.
Medicare safety net for IVF and private obstetrician fees
Although cuts to the Medicare Safety Net were widely predicted, the cuts have gone far beyond what was expected.
The Government will introduce a cap on Medicare benefits payable under the Extended Medicare Safety Net for a range of items with excessive fees including all obstetric items and some ultrasound items related to pregnancy.
From January 1, 2010, once a patient reaches the safety net threshold of $1111.60 in out-of-pocket medical fees, or $555.70 for those on low incomes, safety net payments will be capped at: – $200 for the planning and management of a pregnancy, including being booked into a hospital for delivery. – $30 for a pregnancy consultation, including blood, urine and weight checks. – $550 for the planning and management of an IVF pregnancy.
Keeping in mind that one IVF cycle can cost $6000, and many obstetrician’s pregnancy management fee sits around the $4000-$6000 mark, a few hundred dollars rebate will make these options largely unaffordable for most Australian women. “It’s going to mean that IVF for some people is only going to be available for the rich,” Access Australia chief executive Sandra Dill said.
Private health insurance
High-income earners have also been slugged with reduced rebates on PHI rebates, coupled with an increase in the Medicare Levy.
The rebate will be means tested once an individual earns more than $75,001 and a couple earns more than $150,001, and will decrease on a sliding scale, until $120,001 for singles and $240,001 for couples, at which point it cuts out completely.
In a double-whammy, the Medicare Levy Surcharge aimed at those people who do not take out private health insurance will climb from 1 per cent to 1.25 or 1.5 per cent depending on a person’s income.
Midwifery services
The budget has seen a surprise win for midwifery services. The Government will provide $120.5 million over four years for the introduction of Medicare‑supported midwifery services to provide greater choice for women during pregnancy, birthing and postnatal maternity care.
The new arrangements will allow midwives to work as private practitioners, provide services subsidised by the Medical Benefits Schedule and prescribe medications subsidised under the Pharmaceutical Benefits Schedule. The Government will also provide subsidised medical indemnity for eligible midwives working in collaborative arrangements in hospitals and healthcare settings (but not homebirths.)
A new 24‑hour, seven‑days‑a‑week helpline will also be established to provide antenatal, birthing and postnatal maternity advice and information to women, partners and families during the ante‑natal period and up to 12 months following the birth of a child.
Women in rural and remote areas will be assisted by an expansion in the Medical Specialist Outreach Assistance Program to provide integrated outreach maternity service teams for women in under serviced areas. The expanded teams will include midwives, obstetricians, general practitioners and other health professionals, such as paediatricians and Aboriginal health workers. Additionally, funding will be provided for the professional development of midwives and for general practitioners to undertake additional training to become GP obstetricians or GP anaesthetists.
Carers
In welcome news, the Government finally says it recognises the “vital role” that carers play in the community.
Those who receive a carer payment will receive the pension increases of $32.49 a week for singles on the full pension rate.
As well, a permanent carer supplement of $600 a year will be introduced for carer payment recipients and an extra $600 a year for carer allowance recipients for each person in their care. The supplement will replace the Government’s one-off bonuses and the first payment to carers will be made at the end of June.
Tax cuts
Proposed tax cuts for the new financial year, announced at the last budget, have not changed. From 1 July 2009:
- The 30 per cent threshold will increase from $34,001 to $35,001;
- The low income tax offset will increase from $1,200 to $1,350, meaning the effective tax free threshold for people earning $30,000 or less will increase to $15,000; and
- The 40 per cent tax rate will be reduced to 38 per cent
First home buyers
First-home buyers rushing to sign contracts before July can breathe a sigh of relief with news the first-home owner’s boost will be extended in full for three months.
First-home owners entering contracts between July 1 and September 30 will get a total of $14,000 when they buy established homes and $21,000 for new homes.
The boost will halve for those entering into new contracts from October 1 until December 31, with those buying established homes receiving $10,500 and the latter will receive $14,000.
Sole parents
While the budget gave a well-deserved increase to aged pensioners, the pension for single parents remains unchanged, as do benefits for young people and the unemployed.
Utterly devastating news for anyone needing to access assisted reproduction.
While the complete details of what will be capped and how low are still unclear, what is apparent is that the cost of actually becoming pregnant is going to be out of reach for so many Australians.
My husband and I have what would be considered a med-high combined income, but the thought of paying out more than $6000 per cycle, with no guarantee of a baby at the end, is horrifying.
A pregnancy typically results after 3 cycles and associated frozen embryo transfers. Under the rates currently charged by my clinic, this is almost $30 000.
I also find the Safety Net issue horrific. I have had 2 IVF bubs (one died soon after birth) so I can deal with never being able to do anymore IVF but for those who still have not got their dream baby I just feel so sorry for them.
Devastating is an appropriate word but disgusted and dissappointed are also quite relevant here. I cannot believe that we now have to spend even more money to make our dream come true, how dare the Rudd Government in fact ANY government disadvantage those of us who have no chance to have a child unless its through IVF. We look after our aged and support teen pregnancy & single parents but what about us? Obviously Swan and Rudd have never had to go through the pain and heartache of an IVF cycle and process. Shame on you both Shame on you!
Well this morning i woke up and read the Mr Rudd had taken away my dream of becoming a mother. I have had 3 failed IVF attempts and heavily rely on the rebate from Medicare to save for the next attempt. Now that is not going to happen.
As anyone that has been through an IVF cycle, it is stressful and costly enough going through a cycle and now having the government add more stress to this. I wonder if the shoe was on the other foot and Mr Rudd was going or been through IVF if this would happen.
My only hope is that it will not pass through the Senate!
I would suggest everyone write to the opposition in the hope that they will reject it.
Well i want to know how us carers are the big winners to be honest also we where receiving 1000 on carer payment and 600 on carer allowance so therefore he has really cut us down 400 dollars, and i know for a fact the medicine my son is on is not covered by the pbf scheme, so i agree about the health and medicare one too it is devastating they need to start thinking about the ones who are working more and the ones who are trying to have a family that have great difficulty, but over all i think only the pensioners are better off in this budget, like i said carers have gone from 1600 to 1200.
Isn’t it amazing how we have many young mothers getting pregnant for a baby bonus that they think will solve all their problems and yet those who actually want a child and have waited years for the opportunity may not be able to afford an IVF cycle. The government keeps giving money to people who are obviously not responsible and yet won’t support those of us who spend time making suitable decisions for our families.
We struggle to pay for private health insurance even with the rebate – and now they want to make it even harder for us with the changes to the medicare safety net! Do they realise that if we drop out of private health insurance to make it cheaper for us (even with the tax penalties attached)the strain on the public health system would become even more of a headache than it is for them now?
up until yesterday ivf was the last thing on my mind.i found out yesterday the only chance for me to have a child was ivf.obviously my wife was upset,now i can handle this in itself,its a shock and a personal blow to me but thats ok, ivf would help us.that was yesterday,this is today. Together my wife and i are middle to high income.but ive based my life around this,i wasnt planning for this.ive been working since i was 16.iam 28 now ive been paying $40000 tax for the last 5 years.i bought my house a car and i have nice stuff,but not once have i taken anything off the government..ive never been on the dole or taken anything from the government.i guess its a kick while your down thing,but we wil work it out,its going to take longer.but we wil get there.i just dont understand how so much money can be wasted on red tape.
I have just commenced taking injections to commence our first try via IVF (with PGD) and feel totally exposed to the costs. We do not know when these changes take effect – has anyone see anything about this?
We are up in the air to know if I should stop with the injections as we cannot afford the full costs. We are tied into dates because of the PGD testing and had to take the gamble of starting this week without knowing what grief Mr Rudd would inflict.
The new safety net caps are absolutely ridiculous and all couples out there who cannot conceive naturally are being victimised – in addition they are placing obstetric care out of reach. I for one plan to continue to write to Mr Rudd and express my extreme disappointment and I encourage everyone else to do the same. I don’t expect a response, given that I’m still waiting on the courtesy of a response to my letter back in March.
My thoughts are with Nikki’s comments, We have a little 4 month old and would dearly love another child or two but gee it makes it hard with the capping put on. Mr Rudd and Mr Swan need to have a look at what they are doing to families.
i am disgusted in how those that are less privledged to have a child are discriminated against when it comes to government support with IVF. We are already disadvantaged but now Labor is putting the family dream out of our reach. Thank Mr Rudd – you really are supporting the working family…..NOT!
I am with you all Prue, Nikki and Peta. We have done 3 cycles of IVF and just recently lost our little girl at 20 weeks mid term in a 1 in a thousand occurance. As if we are not gutted already this is now just another real kick in the guts and I seriously don’t know how we will ever manage to achieve our dream. What I do know is that even though we have 3 frozen embryos we will have no option but to do a fresh cycle before the end of the year when the changes come in!!!
“Paid parental leave is a workforce entitlement, so eligibility is connected with the individual worker,” she said.
Dodgy logic Jenny Macklin. If it’s a workforce entitlement, then surely being in the workforce should be all the eligibility that is required. If it’s only for people under a certain income, then it’s welfare and should be treated like other forms of welfare and based on family income. This is discriminatory against families where the woman is the primary, or for whatever reason sole income earner.
And it’s a shame that everyone recieved unnecessary tax cuts while the unemployed and sole parents missed out on any sort of consideration. Especially in a time when, as the government pointed out, unemployment is likely to rise and school leavers and job seekers are in for a tough time.
The IVF stuff is devistating. What a shame we’re moving towards the babies-only-for-the-rich model that America uses, and who’d have thought that would happen under a Labor government.
The midwifery stuff is excellent!
I think he did the best he could under the circumstances . With the exception of the 67 pension age ,I wish he was joking. As for the Baby bonus ,First home buyers ,maternity leave and IVF the rest of us survived.If you cant have children naturally well the only option is to pay for it,there are plenty of people who wanted children could not and had to live with it.Baby bonus and first home buyers something else the rest of us did not get that should have gone with bells on along with paid maternity leave yet another one the majority will be paying for the minority.
I like Rebecca are still trying to understand how we as Carers are better off. From what I understand our $1,600 a Year is now down to $600.00 and I am still confused as to the rate my pension will increase weekly.
I look after my husband how has advanced Alzheimer’s and I would defy any of the pollies to come and spend a Month in my shoes.
It’s true. The carers one off payment that they receive on or before 30th June each year is being decreased from $1600 to $1200. Who’s the the tricky polly now? Wayne Swan of course if you can believe he has all that he has all that much autonomy from Kevin Rudd.
Doesn’t it suck, those who have baby after baby on welfare don’t have to pay a cent to have their baby, free scans doctors visits etc and those that work hard for many years to provide a more stable environment get slammed with more fees etc no free scans or doctors visits when your pregnant it’s as thought they encourage those on welfare to have more children and those that arn’t are condemned. I feel sorry for those poor couples out there that have to spend what money would go on their baby’s education and well being on hefty IVF treatment come on they have to give at least the first couple of times for free at least.
We went for our first IVF consultation today. We registered for treatment in August thinking our out of pocket expenses would be approx 2K. Looks like we better hurry up. Hope it works first time otherwise we will have to re think. The UK offers 3 cycles of IVF free even though their economy is in the toilet. I guess they still think it’s worth it.
JW Howard created a class of Australians dependent on social welfare and a Nation with an entitlement mentality.
Generation after generation marches down to Centrelink with their hands out .. poverty begets poverty, handouts to parents begets their children with their hands out.
KRudd is calling this “middle class welfare” and I applaud him for addressing it.
Whilst a family income of $150000 doesn’t necessarily define them as “wealthy” it does put that family into the rarefied category that only 3% of us reach. The question is not the label this group is given, the question is should taxpayers be supporting those 3% with handouts?
And please, no more bleeding heart stories about families with a combined income of $170000 struggling to pay their three mortgages. I’m not sorry if you have to sell one of your two investment properties or shed some shares ‘cause the GFC has “hit you hard”. Too many Australians don’t have a home to live in.
And boo hoo to you too if you missed out the Rudd Dollars but got a little something just before Christmas, or a little something at the last budget, or the one before that – your ‘missed handouts’ sob stories are tiresome.
As a ‘single’ white female I’ll take my $2.88 p/w tax cut and an increase to the Medicare levy surcharge threshold.
And thanks KRudd, I was delighted to receive my $900 Rudd Money – I’ve never had a handout .. please sir, I want some more.
If I understand it correctly , single parents will have their benefit reduced due to the obligation to work 15 hours and the taper rate for calculating benefit loss has risen from 40 cents in the dollar to 50 cents ..So a person working for the required minimum wage will lose around $30 p/w ,, A low blow
As someone who has recently undertaken 2 IVF cycles and very recently fallen pregnant, I’m horrified that the govt is reneging on its election promise to leave the Safety net untouched. I am very fortunate to have only had to pay out of pocket expenses of $5000 for my IVF treatment and will pay $3300 out of pocket for my precious baby to be
looked after by an obstetrician. Hardly a bargain – but nothing compared to the probable $20000+ this exact scenario would cost me next year. Is the Govt trying to push those of us who fork out $200 each month in Health Insurance premiums, & who are happy to pay a reasonable amount for the added benefit and security of private obstetric treatment, back into the public system.
It makes my blood boil every time I have to pay $115 for a blood test or $220 for a scan, knowing that all of this would be totally free if I attended a public hospital. I do it because after the extreme efforts made to conceive this baby I want the best possible care. However I’m sad for all the women who will be forced to make a different decision this time next year. I am very pleased at the introduction of maternity leave and added recognition of midwives – however what should be a long overdue celebration merely feels like giving with one hand and taking with the other.
To all you whinging about young mums getting pregnant just because of a baby bonus, i am 19, married, working expecting my second daughter and i could not care less if there was no baby bonus! i dont receive a cent from centrelink, my husband and i are both hard working, and i dont see any of the older parents saying no to getting the baby bonus!!!!
To all commenting on the changes to medicare rebates for IVF. I agree it is disgusting I have just finished my first cylcle and am 8months pregnant with my first child.We struggled to finance this IVF cycle unless our financial situation changes we won’t be able to do it again without taking a LOAN! I think we should petition the Government to change their stance or make the clinics and Obstericians cap their fees as well. There are enough of us here to try and start a petition. Anyone interested?
To Shanelle – I agree it’s not fair to target ‘young” mothers and generalise. I am only 32 which I consider still young and it’s not fair of anyone to assume that all people younger such as yourself have babies just to capitalise on Government handouts.
Good on you for speaking up and good luck with your second pregnancy.
No, we still get the $1000 too if you are on carer allowance for a child under 16. It is legislated.
hi,Meg
i just rang centrelink today we dont still get the $1000 for carers allowance for a child under 16 it has been cut so we will only get $600 supplement before the 30th of june. i spoke to three different people to make sure that was right its sad we miss out on the $1000 as that money could come in handy for medical bills ect .
Hi.
Meg is right, you still get the $1000 in July if you have a child on Carer Allowance under 16 only.
Please read: http://www.carersaustralia.com.au/?/national/article/view/1080
It says:
The existing Child Disability Assistance Payment of $1,000 a year for carers who are eligible will continue.
Centrelink do not know what is going on. You get different answers by different employee’s
Im sick off hearing you mothers that say you work hard and dont get a cent from centrelink (some with working partners too) If the government supported mothers that are working as well as those that are not, then it would be half as much maybe less to make up for it. You wouldnt like to be in my shoes waiting for the next pension so you can eat a decent meal giving all i get to my children including an autistic son of 4yrs.I would love to work if someone would give me a fair go…
I get the carers allowance for my son and was told by Centrelink that if you are getting it on the 1st July you will get the $1000. It will be ongoing as it has passed legislation through parliament 3 years ago.
If everyone had a bit more pride in themselves. They wouldn’t expect all the handouts. Get a life and get out of strife.