Government should cancel the plan aggravating single parent families' hardships

Japan Press Weekly

Japan Press Service Co., Ltd. is the only news agency providing information of progressive, democratic movements in Japan

Government should cancel the plan aggravating single parent families' hardships
Akahata editorial (excerpt)

In December 2008, the number of parents who receive child-care allowances for single-mother households reached a million.

More than 70 percent of single mothers earn less than 2 million yen a year and their average annual income including child-care allowances is 2.1 million yen.

Under these circumstances, the government will forcibly carry out the plan to cut the additional welfare benefits for child-rearing in the livelihood protection subsidies to single mother households. 90,000 single-mother households will be affected by this plan which aggravates single-mother households' hardships.

Because of the ruling Liberal Democratic and Komei parties following the policy that increased the poverty rate and widened economic disparities, single mother families are hardest hit.

In 2002, the ruling parties adversely revised the child-care allowance system in which the amount of the allowance will be halved five years after the start of the payment. This adverse revision, which the Democratic Party supported, affects about 6,400 children.

Since 2005 when the government implemented the plan to cut by stages the child-rearing allowances for single mother families over two years, 10,000 single-mother households were denied the allowances.

What the government should do first is not to end the child-rearing allowances for single mother families because it is a lifeline for them, but to revoke the plan so that single mother households can receive the allowance until their children turn 18-years-old.

The government should increase the amount of child-care benefits and raise the age limit for the availability of the benefits.

Need to get free from fear

If the government stops wasting tax money, it can increase revenues.

For example, the budget needed for putting the child-rearing allowances for mother-child families back is 20 billion yen, while the Japanese government's financial burden for removing the U.S. forces to Guam is 6.1 billion dollars (about 600 billion yen), which includes the cost for constructing luxurious residence for the U.S. servicemen and their families.

The Japanese Communist Party has worked hard to improve the support for single parent families at both the national and local level. The JCP will make further efforts to create a society which single parent families can live in without anxieties.

- Akahata, March 29, 2009