AUSTRALIA’S peak welfare body wants the Federal Government to add $95 to the Newstart allowance because it says costs of living are unliveable on the current payment.
Australian Council of Social Services, of which Catholic Social Services Australia was a member, increased its original demand for $75 a week to $95, saying the situation had become more urgent.
ACOSS chief executive officer Dr Cassandra Goldie said the allowance for an unemployed single person of $279.5 a week had not seen a real increase in 25 years.
The claim was generally correct because Newstart payment levels were tied to the Consumer Price Index, which measured inflation and ensured payments did not increase in real terms.
This was legislated that way in 1997.
The issue was that CPI did not capture rises in cost of living, which it was not designed to do.
The gap between the Newstart payment for a single person and the maximum aged pension for a single person was $134 at last measure.
The pension was significantly higher because it was tied to average wage growth not CPI.
If the weekly post-war welfare payment had been tied to CPI back in 1945, unemployed people would only receive $90 per week.
Dr Goldie said Newstart should be tied to average wage growth instead of CPI.
She said Australians could not accept the “new normal”, with unemployment rising and costs of essentials rising “dramatically”.
“Raising the rate by $95 per week will get Newstart working by allowing people to cover the basics, instead of being forced to skip meals, sleep rough and miss medication, which makes finding paid work even harder,” Dr Goldie said.
“The benefits of increasing Newstart would be felt in the economy immediately, particularly in regional and rural areas, including those affected by fires.”
