Disaster by design: hidden deaths are the real story as 'disaster payments' end
In the worst COVID outbreak Australia has suffered the government caused avoidable deaths by forcing millions on lowest incomes to endure higher costs with no support
Today the Morrison government laid out a poverty plan for the 2 million people who lost work in the latest COVID outbreak and received a disaster payment – in spite of Doherty modelling that predicts rolling lockdowns and the grim economic outlook.
But the removal of ‘disaster payments’ ignores the poverty crisis that was already unfolding for so many and was only made worse as cases climbed.
There are 2.7 million people surviving on unemployment, student, parenting, disability and carer payments. 1.5 million are in NSW, Vic and ACT. Not one of those payments is above the poverty line of $83 a day.1 Most don’t even come close.
Lifting the millions of people on these payments above the poverty line was the most successful public health and economic policy of 2020. Experts have made clear that the most effective thing the government can do right now to alleviate the mental health crisis is increase income support payments.2
It is a mark of shame that while people in low socioeconomic areas died of COVID at 2.5 to 4 times the rate of those in wealthy areas,3 the government refused to return the full COVID supplement and that the opposition failed to call for it.
In the absence of federal government action, states have refused to protect the community by supporting those on the lowest incomes. There is only one message to take from this: all levels of government see the lives of the poor as expendable.
Antipoverty Centre spokesperson Jay Coonan said:
The disaster payments have lived up to their name from the very beginning. Inadequate, confusing and unavailable to millions who needed help, the human cost has been incalculable. All that happened is those in the poorest communities suffered, ending in more COVID cases, more hospitalisation and avoidable deaths.
Denying so many of us support, and now ripping away the little that was there, is orchestrated to force state governments to end lockdowns regardless of safety.
We are in a poverty crisis of the government’s making, and those of us below the poverty line are being failed by the political, corporate and media class who refuse to hold the prime minister accountable for his choices.
As we barrel towards millions losing access to payments that have helped keep them afloat we cannot forget those who never received a dollar of support to survive lockdowns.
The day the disaster payments stop should be marked as a day of remembrance for the lives lost because of reckless government decisions that turbocharged the health crisis. At the best of times our social security system is a weapon of social murder, and these are not the best of times.
We are receiving reports from people on income support in all locked down states that their costs have increased. People are forced to leave our homes more often than we want to, putting ourselves and others at risk, because we cannot afford to have groceries, medication and other goods delivered.
It’s clear this government sees the lives of the poorest as easily sacrificed to the budget gods. Even worse is the total lack of opposition to these barbaric policies.
It should come as no surprise that the COVID response is hampered by vaccine hesitancy and lockdown fatigue. What else do these governments expect when they continue to fail us while bending over backwards to protect businesses?
Background
There are 2,753,317 million people receiving working age payments and 1,542,490 of these are in the ACT, NSW and Victoria.4
Of the 1.5 million people on working age payments5 in NSW, Victoria and the ACT only 166,000 received the $200 disaster payment6 made available to a limited number of income support recipients.
Media contact: 0413 261 362 / media at antipovertycentre.org
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Source: Department of Social Services, ‘Demographic data’, June 2021, https://data.gov.au/data/dataset/dss-payment-demographic-data/resource/0a6df0ff-03a3-451e-a4b2-e0224e647379?inner_span=True
Working age payments included in this figure are Austudy, Carer Payment, Disability Support Pension, JobSeeker, Parenting Payment and Youth Allowance.
Source: Department of Health, ‘COVID-19 vaccination daily rollout update’, 29 September 2021, https://www.health.gov.au/resources/collections/covid-19-vaccination-daily-rollout-update