Rally held to demand early restoration of additional benefits for single-parent households receiving welfare assistance

Japan Press Weekly

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

Rally held to demand early restoration of additional benefits for single-parent households receiving welfare assistance

Single mothers receiving welfare assistance and their supporters on October 21 held a rally in the Diet Building in protest against the Democratic Party of Japan-led government’s plan to abolish or reduce subsidies for education costs provided to welfare recipient households with children in return for restoring additional benefits for single-parent households (eligibility for benefits applies only to mothers with dependent children and not to fathers with dependent children) receiving welfare assistance.

The rally was organized by citizens’ groups waging activities to improve the livelihood protection system.

While welcoming restoration of additional payments of benefits for mother-children households receiving welfare assistance, participants confirmed that they will increase their efforts against cuts in subsidies for educational expenses within and outside the Diet.

In the rally, Hamada Satomi from Kanagawa Prefecture said, “Because of subsidies for educational expenses, my financial burden was affordable when my two eldest children were high school students. I’m worried whether I’ll be able to afford to send my youngest child to high school without the subsidies.”

At present, the government provides two types of subsidies for welfare recipient households with children. One is a subsidy for high school students, including school supplies and tuition fees provided from 2005. The other subsidy was introduced in July 2009 with the aim of preventing children from becoming welfare recipients by giving financial aid for improving their learning environment.

Some lawmakers, including the Japanese Communist Party and the DPJ, also took part in the rally.

A DPJ lawmaker said that funding restoration of additional welfare benefits for mother-children households by cutting educational subsidies to households receiving livelihood protection benefits is “a violation of DPJ’s election promise.”

- Akahata, October 22, 2009