This paper draws on policy analysis and interviews with 27 Victorian women to propose a multidimensional framework for understanding and achieving economic security for low-income single mothers and their children.

Key findings:

• even with careful budgets, making ends meet is a struggle
• the clash between unpredictable work and fixed hours of child care restricts mothers’ choices
• conditional and confusing social security creates anxiety and undermines economic security
• the unfair child support system compounds women’s difficulties.