Jim Chalmers suggests welfare payments could be increased in next week’s budget

The Treasurer has left the door open to “additional steps” to boost welfare payments in next week’s federal budget.

Australians who receive social security payments could be one of the biggest winners in next week's federal budget, Jim Chalmers has hinted.

In a press conference on Tuesday, the Treasurer alluded to “additional steps in the budget” to adopt some of the recommendations of the Economic Inclusion Advisory Committee.

The committee last month called for a “substantial” increase to the JobSeeker unemployment payment - which is currently at $55 a day - and called for an increase to the Commonwealth Rent Assistance.

Committee chair Jenny Macklin was among a group of almost 200 women who this week wrote to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, pleading with him to increase payments to help fight economic inequality.

Mr Chalmers on Tuesday did not indicate which government payment the budget would tackle in next Tuesday’s budget, but said the committee’s work was “important, well regarded, and well informed”.

But he ruled out adopting the committee’s recommendations in full.

The government has been under pressure to raise the JobSeeker rate. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Nicholas Eagar

“We can’t afford to implement every recommendation put to us by that committee … We need to be more careful because we need to be cognisant of the budget situation and what we can afford,” he said.

On Sunday, Finance Minister Katy Gallagher suggested the government might focus on improving Commonwealth Rent Assistance as part of the broader focus of improving women’s economic security.

“Commonwealth Rent Assistance … goes to providing support for many women and many women who are single parents,” she told ABC’s Insiders.

“We look across the board at what is possible, but we’ve made no secret that we want to make sure that we are driving economic equality for women … part of the answer is the payment system.”

In last year’s budget, the government increased JobSeeker and related payments by $40 a fortnight, and also increased Commonwealth Rent Assistance.

Treasurer Jim Chalmers will hand down his budget next Tuesday night Picture: NCA NewsWire / Max Mason-Hubers

The biggest welfare winners last year were single parents, with Labor extending the scheme to cover sole parent families until the youngest child was 14 - up from eight.

Mr Chalmers this week said while there were many things the government wished it could spend money on, one of the primary focuses of the budget was on fighting inflation.

He confirmed the government was on track to deliver its second consecutive budget surplus, in part made possible by reducing the total debt by $152bn in 2023-24 compared to the almost $1 trillion forecast in the final Coalition budget.

Originally published as Jim Chalmers suggests welfare payments could be increased in next week’s budget