Social Services Minister warns Australia a ‘long way’ from being out of COVID pandemic
A senior Minister has warned we are “a long way from being through” the coronavirus crisis while flagging inflated dole payments were ‘very likely’ to continue.
QLD News
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Another temporary increase in dole payments is all but certain after December, Social Services Minister Anne Ruston confirmed as she said the nation was “a long way from being through the coronavirus pandemic”.
A decision on the JobSeeker supplement, currently set at $250 until December 31 after falling from $500, is expected to be made in just over a month.
Senator Ruston said another temporary increase above the $565 base payment, rather than a permanent one, was “very likely” but how much and if there was one would depend on job market conditions at the time.
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“We are a long way from being through the coronavirus pandemic,” she told a Senate estimates hearing on Wednesday.
“We don’t know when it will end, we don’t know where it will end, we don’t know what it will look like when it ends.”
JobSeeker remains set at $565.70 a fortnight, but the coronavirus supplement boosts the payment up to $815.70.
The most likely outcome is for the $565 payment to remain at its current level after December 31, but for the supplement to continue at its current or a lower amount.
Labor has been pushing for a permanent increase to the base JobSeeker rate, but has yet to nominate an amount.
Opposition Senator Katy Gallagher said that there would be more than 1.5 million Australians relying on JobSeeker as at December.
“There’s a large amount of Australians who are relying on the payment and what the government is saying to them is at the end of December you can go back to $40 a day,” she said.
“You have said this morning that you are only considering a temporary increase to that and the government isn’t going to do anything about a permanent increase to allow people to live dignified lives while they are looking for work.”
Senator Ruston said she had made it “very clear that elevated levels of support will be very likely” after December.
