At a time when unemployment is at a 14-year low, it is easy to forget the plight of people on the JobSeeker benefit. There are still about 1.6 million Australians, including the unemployed and some students, who have to survive on the basic rate of just $46 a day.
In theory, people should be able to find work in the current booming labour market, but in reality many will need help. About four out of five of those receiving the JobSeeker benefit have been on income support for more than a year, many have a disability and about 40 per cent are aged over 45.
Credit:Mayu Kanamori
The low level of JobSeeker creates a further obstacle in people’s path to paid work. Life on $46 a day forces many into homelessness and overwhelms them with the day-to-day grind of poverty. The old stereotype of the relaxed dole bludger is a lie, especially in big cities such as Melbourne and Sydney, where rents are exorbitant and rising fast.
There was some progress last April. After calls from the Reserve Bank and business groups including the Business Council of Australia, the Morrison government announced a $25-a-week increase.
Welfare groups said the new base rate – still about $20 a week behind the aged pension and about 40 per cent below the poverty line – remained inadequate to cover basic necessities.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison resisted, insisting that the best form of welfare was a job. Before the 2019 election, Labor promised to hold a post-election review into the level of JobSeeker, with the understanding that it would be increased.
On Tuesday, ALP assistant treasury spokesman Andrew Leigh snatched away the idea of a review if Labor wins next month’s poll. There would be no increase to JobSeeker in the first budget of a Labor government.
It is not clear why the ALP waited until the election campaign had started to announce its change of heart, but some think strategists are using the issue to show the party contains hairy-chested fiscal conservatives.
Australian Council of Social Service chief executive Cassandra Goldie said the ALP had been forced to change course to counter a “scare campaign on budget deficits”.
Leigh defended the change by saying the party had decided the best way to reduce poverty was to target homelessness, and it has pledged to build an extra 20,000 new social housing units. It is an important initiative, but the new homes would help only a small fraction of unemployed people. The federal government must look at much broader policies.
The Age supports a review of the JobSeeker level and, more broadly, of other programs related to poverty reduction. For example, as well as a $25 increase in JobSeeker, the Council of Social Service backs an increase in Commonwealth rent assistance and special payments for single parents and people with disabilities.
Of course, at a time when the federal government is forecasting deficits for the next decade, it will be hard to find the money. Yet, there are plenty of options to fund extra spending, including reform of the tax system. The fight against poverty must be one of Australia’s priorities.
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