Partners of prisoners should get similar social welfare assistance as other lone parents, says report

19th November 2025

This article discusses the launch of the IPRT report Paying the Price: The Cost and Impact of Imprisonment on Families, with a particular focus on its recommendations for improving social welfare supports. These include revising eligibility rules for the One Parent Family Payment, updating the payment guidelines, and removing the current six-month waiting period.

The report also recommends that kinship carers who take responsibility for a child or children while a parent is in prison should be able to access a guardianship or equivalent payment without having to declare parental abandonment or end parental contact.

Additionally, it proposes that supports for lone parents should be aligned with those available to bereaved families.

The full article can be read here.