Raising JobSeeker will help to ease heartbreaking realities for those battling poverty

2 hours ago 3

When Anthony Albanese amended the stage 3 tax cuts at the start of last year, he acknowledged that, as prime minister, he was in a position to act on cost-of-living pressures. That choice improved lives. But there is another choice that could transform nearly a million lives nationally: raising the rate of JobSeeker.

At the St Vincent de Paul Society, we hear every day from people who are faced with difficult choices. The choice between paying a power bill, putting food on the table or keeping up with the rent.

JobSeeker was increased during the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic, briefly lifting recipients out of poverty.

These are choices that no one should be forced to make. Yet last year well over 200,000 people supported across the state through our members, food vans and specialist services had no other alternative.

For a single adult with no children, the current rate of JobSeeker is just over $793 per fortnight. Even if someone on income support can find a property within their budget, they will almost certainly be in housing stress or poverty.

The government’s own Economic Inclusion Advisory Committee has described JobSeeker as “seriously inadequate,” and has found that Australia provides the lowest level of benefits for the short-term unemployed in the OECD.

Many in the government have in the past expressed similar concerns regarding the JobSeeker payment, describing it as not enough to put food on the table and keep the lights on, and certainly not enough to help get people into work.

While indexation has lifted the daily rate of Newstart from $40 in 2019 to $56 on JobSeeker today, median weekly rents in NSW have jumped from $480 to $650. The gap between income support and the real cost of living has only grown wider.

We can debate the finer points of supplementary payments and indexation, but the real cost of inaction on JobSeeker is measured in the lives it impacts.

For our members and employees on the frontline, these numbers translate into heartbreaking realities that they see and hear each day as they help people in the community. One in three people we assist rely on JobSeeker to survive. Parents skip meals so their kids can eat. People just under the pension age are terrified to turn on the heating during winter out of fear of the bill.

In the last year, our members provided over $15.1 million in financial and material aid, averaging $349 per household, to help people keep their heads above water.

Since 2020, the number of people seeking support from Vinnies increased by 39 per cent. What should be one-off support is increasingly becoming a substitute for an adequate safety net that should be provided by governments.

The rate of JobSeeker has failed to keep up with the cost of living and without action the number of people in need of support will grow.

We should not accept poverty as an unfortunate yet unavoidable part of life. We should all be concerned that one in eight people and one in six children in Australia live in poverty.

Do we want to live in a society where inequality continues to widen or one where everyone is afforded a dignified standard of living?

Raising the rate of JobSeeker is a modest and achievable step. The St Vincent de Paul Society Australia, in partnership with the Australian National University, has done modelling on reducing tax concessions which could lift up to one million people out of poverty.

Right now, within the walls of Parliament House, our elected representatives from all sides of politics can make sure no-one is left behind by choosing to improve the quality of life for thousands of people across the country.

No Australian should be forced to decide between food, shelter and dignity. Raising the rate of JobSeeker would give people choices that restore dignity, and it’s the right choice to make.

Yolanda Saiz is the CEO of the St Vincent de Paul Society NSW.