Friday, July 02, 2004
The Welfare Trap
The Government's “Baby Bonus” payment kicked in yesterday (1/7/2004). The Government had introduced a lump sum maternity payment of $3,000 for all new mothers, $6000 for mother with twins and $9,000 for mother with triplets. Good news, the more babies, the better. On the surface, it looks like a great help to the mother in easing the financial burden of having a new baby.
There is a general concern that this baby bonus will encourage young girls to get pregnant to qualify for this baby bonus. This is particularly so for young girls coming from socially disadvantaged group with little education and poor career prospect. According to existing welfare system, a young girl who has a child is entitled to welfare payment for the next 15 years. This welfare payment to single mother is almost obligation free and much more generous than the dole payment to an unemployed worker. This generous payment is a big disincentive for the mother to look for paid job elsewhere. At the end of 15 years, there is nothing to stop the mother from having another baby to repeat the whole payment cycle. Thus the welfare system acts as a reward for people making bad choices
Already, almost one in three is born to an unmarried mother. The baby bonus will just reinforce and advance this trend. Babies born from single mothers relying on welfare payment are subject to very high risk of being influenced and inherit a welfare culture. They will not receive a balanced father-mother family style upbringing and have little chances of receiving higher education to advance their career prospects. At the end, when they turn into adulthood, the risk of them repeating their mother’s footsteps is very high. And the cycle continues inside this welfare trap.
Is the welfare system too good for the recipient’s own good? Are we fostering a culture of dependent? Should effort be made to break away from this welfare dependent culture?
There is a general concern that this baby bonus will encourage young girls to get pregnant to qualify for this baby bonus. This is particularly so for young girls coming from socially disadvantaged group with little education and poor career prospect. According to existing welfare system, a young girl who has a child is entitled to welfare payment for the next 15 years. This welfare payment to single mother is almost obligation free and much more generous than the dole payment to an unemployed worker. This generous payment is a big disincentive for the mother to look for paid job elsewhere. At the end of 15 years, there is nothing to stop the mother from having another baby to repeat the whole payment cycle. Thus the welfare system acts as a reward for people making bad choices
Already, almost one in three is born to an unmarried mother. The baby bonus will just reinforce and advance this trend. Babies born from single mothers relying on welfare payment are subject to very high risk of being influenced and inherit a welfare culture. They will not receive a balanced father-mother family style upbringing and have little chances of receiving higher education to advance their career prospects. At the end, when they turn into adulthood, the risk of them repeating their mother’s footsteps is very high. And the cycle continues inside this welfare trap.
Is the welfare system too good for the recipient’s own good? Are we fostering a culture of dependent? Should effort be made to break away from this welfare dependent culture?
