Often nothing left for other necessities or emergencies, Anglicare says, with Centrelink payment levels ‘trapping people in poverty’
Jobseeker payments aren’t high enough to cover essential weekly costs including food and rent, an annual Anglicare index has found.Jobseeker payments aren’t high enough to cover essential weekly costs including food and rent, an annual Anglicare index has found.Australians on income support are “structurally unable to afford the basics of life” and are unable to absorb any more cost of living increases, according to a new report.
But in many scenarios, there was nothing left over for those utilities and other necessities, and in some scenarios even weekly costs could not be met. It is impossible to live alone on the jobseeker payment, the report found, with basic weekly costs exceeding income by $135 a week. Because jobseeker and other working-age welfare payments are benchmarked against the consumer price index, rather than the poverty line or another measure that captures living standards, the one-off increases in 2021 and 2023 have not given welfare recipients a reprieve, the report argued.
Anglicare has reiterated its call for the federal government to raise jobseeker payment rates – currently $381.35 per week for a single person or $698.30 for a couple without children – to the Henderson poverty line, which was $612.47 and $819.31 respectively at March this year.
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