Welfare boost for Aussies after Coalition MPs vote to support bill

A proposed plan to boost payments to some of Australia’s most vulnerable people has cleared its final hurdle, all but confirming the increase.

A welfare payments increase for more than one million Australians is all but confirmed after the Coalition resolved not to stand in the way of the $40 per fortnight top up.

Opposition MPs voted to amend the bill to try to beef-up the number of hours unemployed people can work before their payments are reduced.

But should that vote fail, a Coalition spokesman confirmed the party would waive the legislation through.

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton used his budget reply speech earlier this month to argue that the amount which Jobseekers can earn before their payments are reduced should be doubled from $150 to $300.

Peter Dutton will wave through the legislation despite wanting to amend it. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Martin Ollman

He said the budget had done “nothing” to reduce the barriers to work for unemployed people.

Mr Dutton’s stance was swiftly shot down by the government as a “thought bubble”, given 75 per cent of Jobseeker recipients do not report additional income.

The government announced it would lift the Jobseeker, Youth Allowance, Austudy, Abstudy, and the Disability Support payments by $40 a fortnight, or $2.80 per day, in its second budget earlier this month.

It will take the fortnightly payment for a single person with no children to more than $730 from September.

More than one million people will have their payments increased by $40 a fortnight. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Nicholas Eagar

The age limit for a higher Jobseeker rate will be dropped from 60 to 55 in recognition of the fact it is harder for older people to find work.

The increase is set to cost the budget bottom line $4.9 billion.

While Labor has been lashed by the Greens for not going far enough, the minor party said it would not stand in the way of more money in Australians’ pockets.

The government has also been criticised for ignoring the advice of its Economic Inclusion Advisory Committee, which called for the Jobseeker rate to be raised to 90 per cent of the aged pension, or to $68 a day.

Originally published as Welfare boost for Aussies after Coalition MPs vote to support bill