Welfare recipients reject exclusion committee report and call for Centrelink payments above the poverty line
Welfare recipients reject exclusion committee report and call for Centrelink payments above the poverty line
Grassroots advocacy groups led by welfare recipients reject the key recommendations of the Economic “Inclusion” Advisory Committee report released on Friday – they do not reflect the needs of our communities or what people in poverty have asked for.
Included below: comments from spokespeople for the Antipoverty Centre, Anti-Poverty Network Queensland, Anti-Poverty Network SA and Australian Unemployed Workers’ Union; key statistics; crisis line contact information. Welfare recipients are available for interview to speak about their personal reactions. Media contact: 0403 429 414 / media at antipovertycentre.org
As a coalition of groups led by and for people who rely on Centrelink payments, we maintain our position that the committee itself has no legitimacy because poor people are excluded from it. Together, we have made it abundantly clear time and again that this committee cannot reflect our needs in its current form, including in our submission to the inquiry to establish it.
The experts in poverty are those who live it and we know what we need. We call for the government to take meaningful action to help people on the lowest incomes survive the cost of living crisis in the 2024 federal budget.
Urgently increase all Centrelink payments to at least the Henderson poverty line and then work with welfare recipients to develop a sophisticated measure of poverty.
Immediately pause Centrelink payment suspensions and work with unemployed people to develop a genuinely supportive, voluntary, public sector employment service.
Directly invest in buying and building public homes to alleviate the housing crisis and expand access to secure public housing over the long term.
Antipoverty Centre spokesperson and JobSeeker recipient Jay Coonan said:
We are in an undeniable cost of living crisis. People in poverty are the worst affected and least equipped to cope. The government should be ashamed for sacrificing us for the sake of more war machines and a pointless budget surplus.
The exclusion committee’s recommendations are inadequate and arbitrary, but it’s unsurprising that a group dominated by rich people didn't ask for what we need.
This committee “won” by Senator Pocock is nothing more than window dressing that gives the government an easy way out on its meaningless election commitment to review JobSeeker in every budget.
The only appropriate action is for Labor to immediately increase all Centrelink payments to at least the poverty line then work with unemployed people to develop a sophisticated measure of poverty. And they don’t need yet another report to tell them that.
Refusing to get us out of poverty is a betrayal of Albanese’s promise to leave no one behind.
Australian Unemployed Workers’ Union income support spokesperson Catherine Caine said:
A paltry, token raise of $2.85 per day is all the government had to offer people on income support in the last budget, and most people on Centrelink payments didn’t even get it.
Labor's avoidance of the issue since the last election stands in stark contrast to their previous calls for a raise while in opposition.
Time is up for ignoring this issue. Time is up for the people in poverty who have waited through a decade of Coalition cruelty and now almost a full term of Labor silence.
Anti-Poverty Network Queensland spokesperson Jayden Oxton-White said:
As a direct result of successive governments refusal to seriously address the housing and cost of living crisis more people are being forced to sleep rough in our community.
We have come to the point where a lot of funded social services are just telling people to head to Musgrave Park where APN Qld provides direct mutual aid, as they cannot offer any real support.
With the low rate of welfare payments there is no way for people to get out of the cycle. Payments must be raised urgently.
Anti-Poverty Network South Australia spokesperson Brendan Folwell said:
The Anti-Poverty Network of South Australia stresses the importance of lived experience in the analysis of conditions of poverty.
The Economic Inclusion Advisory Committee's report, while making some positive calls, seems more abstract about the issue rather than the painful and punishing experience it is. For example the inadequacy of non-pension payments is mentioned in keeping people in financial stress.
This is a punishingly low welfare rate that needs to be addressed urgently. We think having someone with lived experience would take this out of the abstract and bring it into urgent reality.
Background and key statistics
Payments and recipients
Increasing unemployment is a goal of current macroeconomic policies. The number of people on unemployment payments has steadily increased since September 2023, pushing more and more people on to a poverty payment. The JobSeeker payment is currently $381 per week for a single person with no children, which is $216 below the poverty line of $597 per week. Youth Allowance is $320 per week. Disabled people 50% higher adult-equivalent disposable income to meet the same standard of living as those without a disability.
From the Department of Social Services:
There are currently 2.4 million working age people relying on inadequate Centrelink payments to live. 397,000 of these are principal carer parents and 278,000 are First Nations people.
There are 892,220 people receiving an unemployment payment, an increase of 66,000 people since September 2023 (which was the lowest figure since COVID lockdowns were lifted). The number of people relying on an unemployment payment increased every month between September 2023 and March 2024 (latest figures).
42.9% of people on JobSeeker are unable to work more than 30 hours per week due to disability or a chronic health condition.
1 in 5 people on an unemployment payment are employed but still receive a partial payment because their wages are so low.
Payment suspensions
Suspensions are regularly caused by incompetence and cruelty from job agency caseworkers. As demonstrated by a recent Guardian article, (un)employment services providers exercise a form of coercive control, threatening welfare recipients to maximise outcome payments. A former caseworker said that Indigenous participants are targeted and that caseworkers are instructed to book appointments they know the participant cannot attend in order to trigger a payment suspension.
From the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations:
2,471,455 payment suspension notices were issued in 2023 (latest data);
429,865 of the 1,628,330 (26.4%) total payment suspensions applied were imposed on First Nations people; and
12.6% of total payment suspensions applied were imposed on parents with children in their care.
In the Antipoverty Centre employment services survey, 87% of 443 people who responded to questions about payment suspensions said a provider caused a problem with their payment that they had to resolve themselves. 60% had their payment delayed, reduced or cancelled before they were able to get the error fixed.
Crisis support and counselling services
If you need support you can seek guidance, counselling or crisis help from the below organisations or talk to someone you trust.
Suicide Call Back Service – general: 1300 659 467
SANE Australia – general: 1800 187 263
13YARN – for First Nations people: 13 92 76
National Counselling and Referral Service – for disabled people: 1800 421 468
Headspace – for young people: 1800 650 890
QLife – fo LGBTQIA+ people: 1800 184 527
Full Stop – for people who have experienced sexual harassment and assault: 1800 385 578
Embrace Mental Health – multilingual service: embracementalhealth.org.au
MensLine – for men: 1300 789 978
Brother to Brother – for First Nations men: 1800 435 799