Liberal and Labor must match commitment to lift Centrelink payments above the poverty line
Things are rapidly getting worse for people living in poverty – urgent change is needed
The Antipoverty Centre welcomes today’s commitment by the Greens to heed calls from advocates and lift all welfare payments above the Henderson poverty line and abolish ‘mutual’ obligations.
The welfare system is killing people. Ensuring those who are most in need have enough to afford the basics should be the first and highest priority of every government.
We are distressed that one year on from the government cutting JobSeeker back to half the poverty line, in spite of undeniable evidence of the devastation caused to millions who rely on income support, neither major political party has been willing to make evidence-based welfare policy.
With 8 out of 10 people on JobSeeker long-term unemployed and the average time on payments soaring to 5.5 years, it is clear the government’s claim these are temporary payments is a brazen lie.
BELOW:
Comments from Antipoverty Centre spokesperson and JobSeeker recipient Jay Coonan.
Background and data sources.
Antipoverty Centre spokesperson Jay Coonan said:
The welfare system is a poverty machine and it has to be dismantled.
All we are asking for is to have enough money to live.
We welcome this policy from the Greens, which is so desperately overdue, and urge all political parties to commit to ending poverty.
Making all payments at least the Henderson Poverty Line is a first and important step. We need to make sure everyone has enough to live, and then do the work of developing a new, fit-for-purpose poverty line for the modern era.
The Antipoverty Centre hears from people every day who are in despair and don’t know how they can keep going.
I cannot be more clear: our welfare system kills people. Whether it’s people trapped in unsafe and abusive homes, people who can’t afford the medical care they need, people who take their own life because they feel there is no hope for the future, or Josh Park-Fing, who was killed on a Work for the Dole site.
This is why it’s so urgent that our governments don’t force anyone into poverty, don’t force anyone to do pointless activities that don’t help us find a job, and that they get rid of archaic rules like the partner income test that stop people from escaping violence.
Right now we can see how hard it’s getting, with basic necessities becoming more expensive every day. But this isn’t new and it’s not going to stop anytime soon. The poverty line has been increasing rapidly for years. At the same time, Centrelink payments have been falling further and further behind.
The government plans to keep hundreds of thousands of people unemployed and so it’s their responsibility to ensure we all have enough to live. That’s what a target of 4% unemployment means, it’s forced unemployment for so many of us and it’s by design.
And for the most part, the people left behind are those who who employers have decided are “less desirable”. Eight out of 10 are long-term unemployed, making it harder to get a job. There are nearly half a million disabled people on JobSeeker forced to do harmful ‘mutual’ obligations while they have little prospect of finding a job that is suitable, sustainable and safe. Discrimination means that trans people are unemployed at four times the rate of the rest of the population. Indigenous people, parents and older people are trapped on JobSeeker in increasing numbers.
Payments above the poverty line mean the millions of people who do unpaid work, including more than 400,000 parents and 300,000 carers, will be able to live.
And payments above the poverty line won’t just help people who rely income support. Increasing welfare will benefit millions of low paid workers by helping to increase wages as well.
But not everyone who relies on a poverty payment to survive is unemployed. More than 20% of people on JobSeeker have a job. The jobs are just so bad that people can’t even work their way out of poverty.
Poverty makes life incredibly difficult. It is hard, time consuming, draining work to survive below the poverty line. But this isn’t all that keeps us unemployed. Compulsory requirements like mutual obligations are hurting us and the evidence shows they stop people getting a job. They are used as a tool to force people to take bad jobs and keep wages down. They hurt unemployed people and they hurt low paid essential workers too.
We again call on all political parties to stop destroying the lives of people who need support. Match this commitment to increasing all welfare payments, abolishing mutual obligations, and ensuring everyone who needs income support has enough to cover the basics we need to live.
Media contact: 0403 429 414 / media at antipovertycentre.org
Background
Click here to download a more in-depth background document containing additional statistics and links to all sources for data included in this section.
In 2020, when JobSeeker and other payments were lifted to the Henderson Poverty Line, ACOSS found that a third of people were still regularly skipping meals and 40% were unable to afford medication or adequate healthcare.1
People on payments
There are 950,000 people on unemployment payments (JobSeeker and Youth Allowance Other).2
203,000 (21%) of people on unemployment payments are employed.3
More than 80% of people on JobSeeker are long-term unemployed and the average duration on payments is 5.5 years.4
110,000 people on JobSeeker are parents or primary caregivers.5
There are about 500,000 additional people on other payments that have compulsory activity requirements such as parenting and student payments.6
Approximately 400,000 people on activity-tested payments are parents.7
‘Mutual’ obligations and employment services
There are 830,000 people with compulsory activity requirements in jobactive, the mainstream employment services program.8
More than a quarter of people in jobactive are disabled and a third are over 50.9
11 per cent of people in jobactive are Indigenous.10
When including the 242,000 disabled people in Disability Employment Services (DES) who have compulsory requirements, there are more than a million people with ‘mutual’ obligations.11
About 477,000, or nearly half, the number of people who are forced to use employment services are disabled.12
About 1 per cent of people in DES secure a job that lasts a year or more, and 88.5% of people in the program are long-term unemployed.13
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Australian Council of Social Services, ‘Survey shows increased JobSeeker payment allowing people to eat regularly, cover rent and pay bills’ [media release], June 2020, https://www.acoss.org.au/media-releases/?media_release=survey-shows-increased-jobseeker-payment-allowing-people-to-eat-regularly-cover-rent-and-pay-bills-2.
Department of Social Services (DSS), JobSeeker Payment and Youth Allowance monthly profile, data.gov.au, February 2022, https://data.gov.au/data/dataset/jobseeker-payment-and-youth-allowance-recipients-monthly-profile.
DSS, JobSeeker and Youth Allowance monthly profile.
DSS, Payment Demographic Data, data.gov.au, December 2021, https://data.gov.au/dataset/ds-dga-cff2ae8a-55e4-47db-a66d-e177fe0ac6a0/details.
DSS, Payment Demographic Data.
DSS, Payment Demographic Data.
DSS, Payment Demographic Data.
Department of Education, Skills and Employment (DESE), jobactive and Transition to Work Provider Caseload by Selected Cohorts, Labour Market Information Portal, February 2022, https://lmip.gov.au/default.aspx?LMIP/Downloads/EmploymentRegion.
DESE, jobactive and Transition to Work Provider Caseload.
DESE, jobactive and Transition to Work Provider Caseload.
DSS, Disability Employment Services Monthly Report, Labour Market Information Portal, January 2022, https://lmip.gov.au/default.aspx?LMIP/Downloads/DisabilityEmploymentServicesData/MonthlyData.
DESE, jobactive and Transition to Work Provider Caseload and DSS, Disability Employment Services Monthly Report.
DSS, Disability Employment Services Monthly Report.