On Tuesday, February 23, the Federal Government announced JobSeeker would increase by just $25 a week on its pre-pandemic rate despite calls from welfare agencies to keep it at $715 a fortnight.
Despite the increase, JobSeeker recipients will have to get by on about $44 a day, which Echuca Neighbourhood House manager Sarah Peake said would be very difficult.
“Not everybody has access to public housing options — the rental prices are sky high and throw in general living expenses and utilities, it’s incredibly hard for these people,” she said.
“When you break it down to $3.50 a day extra, it’s just not enough.
“If the payment increased there wouldn’t be so much demand on the emergency relief services. It makes it hard on the people trying to survive and then it increases our workload as well.”
The House is expecting the number of people accessing its foodbank to increase when the supplement ends, while it also see many people struggling to pay rent and utilities.
“We’ve been making a backstop of grocery items for the past month just to build on the capacity of food we’ve got available for when this happens,” she said.
“We probably get an inquiry once a fortnight for a no-interest loan for assistance with rent people are behind on.
“No-interest loans don’t cover rent but we try and buffer the situation for them by giving them some food support so they can save that money and put it towards rent.”
NSW Member for Murray Helen Dalton said it was “a bit rich” coming from federal politicians who receive $280 a day in taxpayer dollars for a travel allowance, on top of their salary.
“The average rent in Moama is $300 a week, so if the jobseeker allowance is just $307 a week, it’s hard to see how many people will pay their bills or afford to eat,” she said.
“I realise there needs to be an incentive to encourage people to work, but the Liberals and Nationals have just slashed hundreds of regional jobs in TAFE.
“They’re not providing the support needed to help our most vulnerable.”
Alongside the new rate, the government also announced mutual obligations would be reinstated with recipients required to apply for 15 jobs a month and attend face-to-face appointments with job service providers.
They will also establish a new hotline for employers to call when a jobseeker turns down a job offer.
Federal Member for Nicholls Damian Drum said with economic confidence returning, the government’s focus was on creating jobs and getting people back to work.
“It’s important to remember 99 per cent of people on working age payments receive additional supplements,” he said.
“In fact, there are about 20 supplementary payments that are targeted to people based on their individual circumstances.
“The other thing to point out is there are about 1.95 million Australians who will benefit from having an extra $50 per fortnight added to their payment and only 40 per cent of those are actually on the base rate of JobSeeker.”
He said there were about 225,000 people on a higher rate of JobSeeker, which will be $667 a fortnight from April 1 — or $48 a day — and a further 220,000 on parenting payment single, which will go to $850 a fortnight.
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