DANCE, STEP INTO THE LIGHT, SHARE YOUR GIFTS AND TALENTS WITH THE WORLD.

SINGLE mothers surviving on government benefits are swelling the ranks of Australia's underclass of jobless families.Figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics show that in the six years until 2003, the proportion of Australian children growing up in jobless households headed by single parents -- overwhelmingly single mothers -- jumped by 7 per cent.
That meant that a total of 482,100 children, or almost two-thirds of children in families where no parent works, were being raised by unemployed mothers.
This compared with 471,100 children, or 57 per cent of children growing up in jobless households in 1997, when the bureau last conducted its Family Characteristics survey. Fifteen per cent of Australian children, or 753,600 children, were in families where no parent worked.
But lone-parent families are the least likely to have an adult in the workforce.

Only 52 per cent of single parents are employed, and of those just over half are in full-time work. But when children are living in homes with two parents, they have a much better chance of being surrounded by working adults.
Almost half of couple families with a child aged 2 or under have both parents in the workforce, and 60 per cent of all couple families with dependent children have two parents who work.
Single parents with children earn less than half the household income of couples with children -- a median weekly income of $412, compared with $1167.
The figures have electoral significance, given Labor's incentives for sole parents on low incomes to move off welfare and into work.
Some single mothers on low incomes will be hundreds of dollars a year worse off if they remain reliant upon government assistance, rather than move into work, under Labor's tax and family package.
Figures supplied by Centrelink show single mothers surviving on benefits congregate in safe Labor seats in the outer suburbs of Sydney and Melbourne and other big cities, and in coastal areas such as the northern NSW seat of Richmond, a marginal electorate held by the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, Larry Anthony.
Elspeth McInnes, from the National Council of Single Mothers and their Children, said women without partners suffered from lack of affordable childcare.
"Although there has been an increase in childcare places in raw terms, the location of that childcare and its accessibility and affordability has declined," Ms McInnes said.
"Then there is the poverty trap issue. By the time you pay your childcare and other costs, the return from a low-paid job is very poor."
Ms McInnes cautioned that the absence of paid work for single mothers did not mean they were idle.
"We acknowledge unpaid mothering work for couple-mothers, but we seem to have a bit of a double standard to expect mothers in single-parent households to be less available to their children," she said.
Single parents with children earn less than half the household income of couples with children, or a median weekly income of $412 compared with $1167.

How sad it is to know that in our country 1 in 4 kids do not live with a natural parent. It is a known fact within psychological circles that the most influence in a childs life comes from the same sex parent.