Ahead of the Federal Budget, Anglicare Australia is calling for action to tackle poverty by raising the rate of JobSeeker and other key payments.
Anglicare Australia’s manifesto for the Budget and Federal Election, Investing in People, includes:
- Costings showing that JobSeeker, Parenting Payment, and Carer Payment could all be raised to the poverty line. This would pull almost 2.3 million Australians out of poverty, including 840,000 children.
- A call to invest an additional $50 billion in social and affordable rentals over the coming decade
- Projections showing that these measures would cost around $161 billion over the next decade, less than the cost of tax concessions for housing investors.
Anglicare Australia Executive Director Kasy Chambers said it’s time for real action on poverty, not one-off payments and rebates.
“The Government has said that its focus this year will be on cost-of-living pressures and incomes. The next Budget is their chance to help those on the very lowest incomes – people living on JobSeeker.
“JobSeeker and other Centrelink payments are languishing far below the poverty line. People trying to live on these payments are bearing the brunt of soaring rents, rising living costs, and a safety net that isn’t keeping up.
“The fact is that one-off payments and energy rebates for people who don’t need them won’t help people out of poverty.
“Raising the rate of these payments would ease that struggle and lift millions of people out of poverty, including hundreds of thousands of children.
“We are also calling on the Government to make a major investment in social housing. There are 640,000 households in severe housing stress who need homes. This investment is the most powerful thing the Government could do to help them through the housing crisis.
“Rebates and one-off payments are a sign that our systems are failing people, and that they can’t keep up. This Budget is an opportunity to fix these problems once and for all, not put a band-aid over them,” Ms Chambers said