When Anthony Albanese amended the stage 3 tax cuts at the start of last year, he acknowledged that, as prime minister, he was in a position to act on cost-of-living pressures. That choice improved lives. But there is another choice that could transform nearly a million lives nationally: raising the rate of JobSeeker.
At the St Vincent de Paul Society, we hear every day from people who are faced with difficult choices. The choice between paying a power bill, putting food on the table or keeping up with the rent.
JobSeeker was increased during the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic, briefly lifting recipients out of poverty.Credit: Illustration by Jim Pavlidis
These are choices that no one should be forced to make. Yet last year well over 200,000 people supported across the state through our members, food vans and specialist services had no other alternative.
For a single adult with no children, the current rate of JobSeeker is just over $793 per fortnight. Even if someone on income support can find a property within their budget, they will almost certainly be in housing stress or poverty.
The government’s own Economic Inclusion Advisory Committee has described JobSeeker as “seriously inadequate,” and has found that Australia provides the lowest level of benefits for the short-term unemployed in the OECD.
Many in the government have in the past expressed similar concerns regarding the JobSeeker payment, describing it as not enough to put food on the table and keep the lights on, and certainly not enough to help get people into work.
While indexation has lifted the daily rate of Newstart from $40 in 2019 to $56 on JobSeeker today, median weekly rents in NSW have jumped from $480 to $650. The gap between income support and the real cost of living has only grown wider.
We can debate the finer points of supplementary payments and indexation, but the real cost of inaction on JobSeeker is measured in the lives it impacts.
For our members and employees on the frontline, these numbers translate into heartbreaking realities that they see and hear each day as they help people in the community. One in three people we assist rely on JobSeeker to survive. Parents skip meals so their kids can eat. People just under the pension age are terrified to turn on the heating during winter out of fear of the bill.
