Institutional processes and the production of gender inequalities: The case of Australian child support research and administration

Abstract

This article analyses the administrative and research capture of child support data as a case study of how institutional data collection processes are performative in perpetuating gendered inequalities. We compare interviews with 19 low-income single mothers and their longitudinal survey responses from the same research to reveal how low-income women strategically or inadvertently 'smoothed' their experiences when responding to data collection processes. This directly resulted in material and symbolic costs in the form of reduced welfare benefits and limited evidence with which to lobby for policy reform. These processes in turn provided benefits to fathers and the state in the form of reduced child support liabilities and enforcement action, and welfare outlays, respectively. We conclude that current administrative and research data collection practices provide a limited and gendered evidence base for administrative justice and policy reform.

Micro-aggressions, single mothers and interactions with government workers: The case of Australia’s child support bureaucracy

“…Materially, child support focused micro-aggressions are likely to limit single mothers' financial resources: micro-invalidations can decrease the amounts of child support assessed and paid; micro-insults and micro-assaults may discourage women from raising and pursuing their former partner's under-reporting of income and/or payment non-compliance. Child support shortfalls interact with the calculation of welfare payments to further limit the amount of money women receive (Cook et al, 2015b).…”

“…Recipients can report the late payment or underpayment of child support so that in specific circumstances welfare payments can be recalculated (DHS, 2014). However, this option is neither widely advertised nor well understood by child support recipients (Cook et al, 2015b).…”

“…In Australia research on the gendered politics of child support reform (Cook and Natalier, 2013, 2016) has not been matched by a similar focus on the administration of these policies. Introducing this focus is necessary because the gap between policy and practice can be large (Cook et al, 2015a, 2015b).…”

Technological opportunities for procedural justice in welfare administration: A review of available apps

“…To explore the opportunities that technologies, such as apps, could provide welfare users, our study focuses on the administration of Australian child support and related welfare processes. These processes have been described as extremely onerous and disempowering (Natlier et al, 2016; Natalier, 2018) given that they suffer significant administrative data gaps (Cook et al, 2015), while simultaneously relying on child support recipients, overwhelmingly women (Qu et al, 2014), to collect and provide large volumes of data to decision-makers. Here we examine whether existing technologies can empower welfare users, assessing: (1) what apps are currently available to support separated mothers to collect and report relevant information; and (2) the extent to which existing apps are relevant to the Australian child support and welfare issues that these women experience.…”

“…We regard the data included in child support decision-making systems, or lack thereof, as opening up or closing down opportunities for procedural justice, which Dorfman (2017: 197) regards as the fairness of ‘the process that rights claimants experience during adjudication’. While government records of child support, benefit payments and taxation supplement data provided by Australian parents (Department of Social Services (DSS), 2018), research indicates that the kinds of data that Australian government agencies collect and use in child support decision-making do not capture the issues of concern to low-income separated mothers (Cook et al, 2015). The availability of relevant data, and the extent to which women are able to provide such data to decision-makers is of prime importance.…”