Fewer teenage parents are claiming income support, new figures show, helping to break a costly cycle of welfare dependency.
There's been a 13 per cent drop in the number of teenage parents claiming the payments in the past three years, Social Services Minister Christian Porter says.
And that's eroding a dependency on the welfare system, which could save taxpayers around $2 billion over the lifetime of those young Australians, he says.
In June 2013 there were 31,971 income support recipients aged under 25 who started receiving a parenting payment when they were under the age of 19, which dropped to 27,940 by June 2016.
"It helps us break cycles of welfare dependency because we have very strong information that shows us that very often the case, sometimes as high as 80 per cent, that a teen parent will have a child where the child itself will end up in the welfare system down the track," Mr Porter told ABC television on Tuesday.
Every state and territory had at least a 10 per cent decrease in young parents on income support with the ACT as high as 20 per cent.
Mr Porter said the federal government has implemented a range of measures to help young people find jobs through programs such as PaTH, but concedes more work has to be done.
The government announced four new initiatives worth $6.7 million under its $96.1 million Try, Test and Learn Fund to help improve the lives of young parents and encourage them into self-reliance.
INITIATIVES FOR YOUNG PARENTS
1) Train and Care - $1.2 million - Providing up to 135 young parents practical training in Western Sydney and regional NSW, coupled with guaranteed childcare placements and entry-level work experience.
2) Supporting Expecting and Parenting Teens - $4 million - Providing up to 500 young parents access to a mentor, and connecting expecting and parenting teens across Australia with health, education and employment support before and after the birth of their baby.
3) Career Readiness for Young Parents - $1 million - Providing up to 60 young parents with a case manager to assist them in developing a career path, with the opportunity for work experience and access to childcare support during their attendance.
4) In-school Parent Employment Service - $500,000 - An employment service for up to 70 young parents incorporated into two primary schools in the Armadale region of Perth.
