A United Nations Human Rights monitor has raised serious worries about the Australian Government's cuts to single parent welfare.
The federal government this year moved thousands of single parents onto Newstart, a lower unemployment payment, cutting their payments by up to $A110 per week.
The ABC reports welfare groups took their case to the UN in October last year after exhausting all options in Australia.
"We felt we now had nowhere to go," Australian Council of Social Service chief executive Cassandra Goldie said.
"There was no court that we could go to in Australia and so we went to the United Nations to raise our concerns."
She said the Government's cuts are pushing single families into poverty.
"Now we have the United Nations special rapporteur also asking the Government to account for what it's doing, so the Government must be prepared to take its obligations seriously," she said.
The ABC reports a federal human rights committee at parliament recommended the government delay its proposed changes to single parent payments, but the government went ahead with the plan.
The UN special rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights and the working group on discrimination against women say the cuts could have a detrimental effect on the human rights of up to 100,000 Australians, and could be contrary to some of Australia's international obligations.
They say they do not wish to prejudge the accuracy of the allegations against the federal government, but have publicly released their letter after waiting for more than four months to receive a reply.
The federal government said it is still considering the matters raised and will respond shortly.
