Not even 500 grams when he was born prematurely at 28 weeks, David Boyle-Feury, who is now 11 months old, barely survived. His immune system is so frail his doctors have advised his mother Stella Boyle-Feury, a single parent, to keep him away from public transport and crowds.
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But there is no choice. Ms Boyle-Feury, who barely scrapes together enough to pay for rent on the small room she shares with her two children, must take David to his hospital appointments every week on the bus. She fears the co-payment proposed in last week’s budget will push her over the edge.
“There are days when I wake up and I don’t even have a dollar on me. The $5 they are going to add to the prescriptions, especially when you are on permanent medication, I don’t know how I’m going to survive,” Ms Boyle-Feury said.
David has to see a doctor weekly and both her and her son’s medication requirements are ongoing. National Centre for Social and Economic Modelling calculates the cost of the $7 Medicare co-payment to families to be between $200 and $300 per household each year.
NATSEM commissioned by federal Opposition Leader Bill Shorten shows that low-income single parents are some of the biggest losers in the budget.
The change to the cut-off age of the Family Tax Benefit B is aimed at encouraging "workforce participation” by primary carers. This change combined with the loss of school kids bonus plus other changes to family payments will see low-income families losing between $4000 and $6250, or 10 to 15 per cent of their yearly income – if the family is earning less than $60,000 by 2017-18 when the changes take full effect.
The loss of these tax benefits will be compensated with a new single income supplement for single mothers, at $750 per child.
Before having David Ms Boyle-Feury was working in aged care in Toowoomba, a job she is likely to take up again when David does not need full-time care. Her St Vincent de Paul caseworker told The Canberra Times “she doesn’t smoke, she doesn’t drink and she budgets. There are no choices for her.”
“I’d love to ask the PM or the Treasurer, have they got kids, how is it going to affect them or their families? It’s just inhuman. I feel really early angry, disappointed and let down,” Ms Boyle-Feury said.