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A Labor-chaired parliamentary committee has recommended abolishing a controversial welfare program that forces disadvantaged single parents to attend interviews in order to continue receiving welfare benefits.

The ParentsNext scheme, which will cost $484 million over the next four years, involves some people on parental payments with young children attending a private sector job agency to seek advice on how to find a job. The parents, mostly young single mothers, can have payments cancelled if they do not show up.

Committee chair Julian Hill – in an interim report on the future of ParentsNext, which has been questioned by Labor – wrote the scheme was “locked into a punitive frame and does too much harm for the good it also does”.

“Many people love ParentsNext, think it’s the best and most flexible program, and want to keep it as is,” he said.

“Numerous parents we met with explained that ParentsNext has helped them to build confidence, connect with employers, and find paid work

“Yet many others think it’s something close to evil and must be scrapped, describing the compliance process as re-traumatising and akin to coercive control.”

Hill’s committee, which he noted had approached the inquiry without any hint of partisanship, said ParentsNext should be abolished after contracts expired.

Thirty recommendations were made including allowing sufficient time to design a new scheme that would not leave vulnerable parents without support, and ensuring this new scheme was less onerous.