A woman who claimed for years that she was a single mother to get Centrelink, tax and health benefits has been caught out after she went to court for a slice of her former “partner’s” property.
The father was not named on the now 18-year-old daughter’s birth certificate. Not was he listed as a contact at her school.
But the mother applied to the Federal Circuit Court for a ruling that she had been in a de facto relationship with the father so she could claim a share of his assets.
In ruling there was no defacto relationship, Judge Joe Harman nevertheless found the father had provided for the girl through childhood. Now the mother, 56, is likely to be reported by the court for welfare fraud because, not only was she not a single mother, she also claimed to have been employed by the father.
Judge Harman said there was a saying: “You cannot have the egg and the half-penny too.”
The daughter had been brought up knowing the man was her father, he was at her birth and he had provided for her since but had no idea until recently that he was not on her birth certificate.
The judge found that, although the parents and their daughter lived for many years in the same property, the mother and father had not only separate bedrooms but separate homes — she in the residence and he in the business part of the property.
“The sexual relationship that has existed between the parties has been brief, sporadic and far from reflective of mutual commitment between them,” Judge Harman said.
“In all probability for these parties, engaging in sex with each other met a need and has not implied anything else, be it emotion or commitment.”
When they rented out the residence, the judge found the man lived upstairs while the woman lived downstairs with her daughter.
“During the period the parties were living under the one roof I am not satisfied they lived in a de facto relationship,” Judge Harman said.
He rejected the woman’s evidence the man had been complicit in her claiming single parents’ benefits because they needed the money.