Protesters marching from the Newcastle Centrelink Office in King St to Sharon Grierson's office in Hunter St.
Parents protest outside Centrelink office in King Street Newcastle before marching to Newcastle federal MP Sharon Grierson's office in Hunter Street voicing their opposition to the cuts to the single parenting payment.
Parents protest outside Centrelink office in King Street Newcastle before marching to Newcastle federal MP Sharon Grierson's office in Hunter Street voicing their opposition to the cuts to the single parenting payment.
Parents protest outside Centrelink office in King Street Newcastle before marching to Newcastle federal MP Sharon Grierson's office in Hunter Street voicing their opposition to the cuts to the single parenting payment.
Parents protest outside Centrelink office in King Street Newcastle before marching to Newcastle federal MP Sharon Grierson's office in Hunter Street voicing their opposition to the cuts to the single parenting payment.
Parents protest outside Centrelink office in King Street Newcastle before marching to Newcastle federal MP Sharon Grierson's office in Hunter Street voicing their opposition to the cuts to the single parenting payment.
Parents protest outside Centrelink office in King Street Newcastle before marching to Newcastle federal MP Sharon Grierson's office in Hunter Street voicing their opposition to the cuts to the single parenting payment.
SINGLE parents and supporters united to protest outside the Newcastle King Street Centrelink office last week.
This action followed a decision by the federal government to cut the Centrelink Parenting Payment to sole parents when their youngest child turns eight, and place them on Newstart Allowance - a lower-rate unemployment benefit.
The switch to Newstart Allowance will result in a $100 per week decrease in payments to single parents.
Belmont North single mother of three, Irina Frolova, believes sole parents are the latest targets of a pursuit by the government to tip the budget into surplus.
She said it was the children who would suffer the most.
"It costs a lot to put your kids through school, they want the same things as their friends and even school lunches are not cheap," Ms Frolova said.
The cuts were a stumbling block to children's education, she said.
A study by the Australian Council of Social Service found there are 575,000 children in Australia that live below the poverty line and need assistance with education.
Low socio-economic children were almost three years behind in reading and more than two years in maths than the highest socio-economic children.
