New research commissioned for Anti-Poverty Week 2021 reveals more than a third of all working Australians continued to be negatively financially impacted in 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The impact is felt most by already vulnerable households, putting more Australians at risk of poverty.
Research by Good Shepherd conducted between April and June shows 2021 figures reflecting a negative financial impact of the pandemic had only seen a marginal drop (34 per cent) from 2020 (41 per cent).
Good Shepherd CEO Stella Avramopoulos said the 2021 figures are consistent with anecdotal evidence reported by frontline workers.
“It was hoped that the numbers would drop dramatically after the 2020 spike, but the emergence of the ‘newly vulnerable’ cohort in 2020 has grown at a similar rate in 2021,” Ms Avramopoulos said.
More than half of 4.7 million Australians whose employment has been negatively impacted by the pandemic were already on low incomes.
This group includes an over representation of recently arrived people, women, young people, unskilled or semi-skilled workers, and sole traders/small business owners.
Of these newly vulnerable households, around 66 per cent have been affected by a reduction in working hours, almost 50 per cent experienced business slow or stop completely, and 40 per cent had been stood down from work for a period.
Nearly 60 per cent of this newly vulnerable group who had lost their job were still without employment.
Burdened by financial stress, front-line workers across Australia have reported a concerning upswing in issues relating to mental health, family relationships and housing.
The St Vincent de Paul Society has urged investment in social housing and more realistic income support is needed in the face of escalating family and domestic violence.
‘The current base rate of income support of $44 a day is so inadequate that women are forced to remain in violent relationships,’ the Society’s national president, Claire Victory said
“Compounding income and financial insecurity is the chronic and growing shortfall in crisis, transitional and long-term accommodation options.
“Action is needed right now with an urgent investment in emergency accommodation to ensure the safety of a growing cohort of single women, including older women, and women and their children.
Ms Victory said there has been a significant decline in longer term appropriate, safe, affordable housing in real terms over the past 20 years.
“The share of all homes that constitute public or community housing has fallen from 7 per cent in 1991 to 4 per cent in 2016,” she said.
“Waiting for years to access suitable housing is not an option for displaced women and children.”
The current shortfall of social housing dwellings is over 400,000.
