If the federal government increases JobSeeker and related payments in the upcoming May budget, it may end poverty for more than 2 million Australians with the stroke of a pen.
Today, Anti-Poverty Week and other community organizations joined independent ACT senator David Pocock in calling for an increase in these essential payments. More than 60% of the 1.4 million adults who depend on the lowest payments—the JobSeeker, student, and parental payments—are women. Additionally, they are taking care of over 830,000 kids.
Children’s lives are negatively impacted by growing up in poverty, both now and in the future. The increase suggested by the independent advisory council on economic inclusion, which Senator Pocock agreed to set up late in 2022, would benefit all.
We depend on social security benefits indexed to the base rate of JobSeeker when any of us experiences sudden catastrophic occurrences, such as losing our houses or means of support due to floods, fires, or pandemics, or when domestic violence shatters our lives. It serves as the crucial foundation for our safety net.
However, the committee discovered that JobSeeker and associated payments keep people in poverty and prevent job seekers from engaging in paid work. More people will be able to accept employment offers as the number of JobSeekers rises. As members of the economic inclusion advisory group and at the jobs summit, employers continue to push for a rise in the number of JobSeekers.
Employers know that to attend a job interview and be effective employees, people need enough money to cover their basic needs, such as food and essential drugs, as well as the cost of gas.
In 2023, JobSeeker offers assistance to more than simply the unemployed. Many people see JobSeeker as a waiting area for the age pension because 28% of individuals receiving it are over 55, and 50% are over 45.
Older women who may have previously ended violent relationships are included in this. They are now on the cusp of retirement, at the mercy of the worsening housing crisis, and surviving on payments that force them to forgo essential medications, wholesome foods, and home heating and cooling.
JobSeeker also serves as a hospital waiting area because 43% of recipients are only partially unable to work due in large part to the fact that receiving a disability pension without legal assistance is now practically impossible. Sickness benefit was incorporated into JobSeeker in 2020, and as a result, more than 7,000 people there are receiving cancer treatment.
A little over 10% of JobSeeker users are single parents with kids between the ages of 8 and 15 who qualify for Parenting Payment Single. The federal government made the first of the task force’s six recommendations, restoring women’s eligibility for parenting payments until their youngest kid is 16.
We have a ton of proof that the extra cash will be used for the necessities—food, rent, and utilities—when the coronavirus bonus was paid during the pandemic.
Over 70% of respondents to the ABS Household Survey in September 2020 reported using the supplement to pay for household expenses. The supplement offered hope, health, and improved mental health, according to a poll of beneficiaries performed by National Council of Single Mothers and Their Children, as a part of their 550 Reasons to Smile campaign.
Seven in ten moms said their family was healthier because they had enough food and more nutritious options, and nearly two in three said they slept better because they weren’t waking up out of financial worry. Almost nine in ten mothers said it reduced stress and anxiety because they could pay household costs.
