One member of every couple works just to pay the tax bill.

There was a time not that long ago when only one member of a family needed to go out to work. 

But that was several moons and many tax increases ago.

Now, one member of every couple goes out to work just to pay the tax bill.

Yet we still have the Sole Parent Support (SPS) benefit, known for decades as the DPB, aka the Domestic Purposes Benefit -- introduced in November 1973 for "sole parents, carers of the sick, and people living alone." 

In 1971, there were about 19,000 sole parent households with children under 15[1]. By the middle of 1974, 12,000 of them were receiving the DPB. There were 110,000 when it was replaced in 2013 with a suite of new benefits. (Politicians love to change a name instead of the reality; and a name-change always makes a thing easier to hide.) 

In today's world the DPB is, says Lindsay Mitchell, "an anachronism. It has lost context in modern society."

Why?

Because most mothers work. 

They take paid parental leave, which has a maximum entitlement of 6 months, and return to their jobs. Whether they want to would vary, but most would say they have to. Mortgages or rent need to be paid, power, groceries, childcare, etc....

22 percent of the mothers were supported by a benefit. For the vast majority, that would be Sole Parent Support. ... So the mothers returning to work - like it or not - will be paying taxes to enable other mothers to stay reliant for most of their newborn's childhood.

Fair?

...

Currently 234,000 children rely on welfare, with over two thirds on SPS.

If those children had a parent on a Jobseeker benefit, the expectation and effort to get their parent into employment would be far greater.

That's not just hot air. The reason Bennett got rid of the Sickness Benefit (in favour of Jobseeker/Health or Disability Condition) was to make sure 'expectation and effort' also went into getting temporarily unemployed unwell people back to work.

Societal expectations matter. And benefits should reflect them.

Get rid of the sole parent benefit. Lift aspirations for those mothers, and better outcomes for their children will follow.

Even better: get rid of all the costs from government that make it necessary for one partner to seek full-time employment just to pay the government's bills!