How young people could have been $4700 better off over last six months

Young people receiving government support could have been up to $4700 better off over the last six months if Labor had lifted payments as its Economic Inclusion Advisory Committee recommended last year, analysis shows.

Just over two weeks out from the next federal budget, the committee has again urged the government to provide more help to those struggling the most.

The government has again been urged to lift welfare payments.Credit: Louie Douvis

“The current rates for the JobSeeker and related working age payments (including Youth Allowance, Austudy, ABSTUDY and Special Benefit) are too low,” the committee’s latest report said.

Cost-of-living pressures have been battering Australians since inflation began rising in 2021, with the cost of everyday essentials including food, energy, fuel and rents skyrocketing over the last few years.

Last year, the then-interim committee said the government should increase the working age payments such as JobSeeker and Youth Allowance to 90 per cent of the age pension rate, and increase the amount of Commonwealth Rent Assistance.

In last year’s budget, the government increased JobSeeker and other payments including Youth Allowance by up to $40 a fortnight and increased the maximum rate of Commonwealth Rent Assistance by 15 per cent.

Analysis conducted by the Parliamentary Library for the Greens showed that if the federal government had adopted the committee’s proposed lift to working-age payments, a single person on JobSeeker would have received almost an additional $3000 over the six months from September 20, while a person on Youth Allowance would have been $4700 better off.

Greens social services spokesperson Senator Penny Allman-Payne said people were stuck on payments that don’t cover even basic needs, and the government should reconsider its priorities before the May 14 budget.

“JobSeeker is a starvation payment and millions of Australians are currently living in abject poverty,” she said.

“Because Labor refused to listen to the advice of their own hand-picked economic inclusion advisory committee, people on Jobseeker have missed out on a 30 per cent increase in payments and students on Youth Allowance a whopping 60 per cent.”

In its latest report, the committee again recommended a substantial increase to the rate of JobSeeker, an additional increase to the rate of Commonwealth Rent Assistance.

In a statement, Treasurer Jim Chalmers and Social Services Minister Amanda Rishworth said the committee’s advice was important before the May budget, and the government was already acting on many of the issues it had outlined.

“While we can’t fund every good idea and everything we would like to do, our record shows we have delivered responsible budgets as well as helping people doing it tough,” they said.

Despite the last federal budget’s increase to working-age payments, the committee said those payments remain too low and reiterated its previous recommendation to lift working-age payments to 90 per cent of the age pension.

“People receiving these payments told the Committee that they regularly go without life’s essentials because they simply cannot afford them,” the report said.

The committee said while the 15 per cent increase to Commonwealth Rent Assistance has helped with rental stress, the payment had failed to keep pace with skyrocketing rental increases. Rents rose by 7.8 per cent in the year to March, the largest increase in rents in 15 years.

“In addition to its priority call for a substantial increase to JobSeeker and related payments, the Committee calls for a further increase in the rate of CRA,” the report said.

Australian Council of Social Service chief executive Cassandra Goldie said the committee’s report showed the most vulnerable Australians were still being left behind.

“People receiving these payments are eating one meal a day, skipping essential medication and foregoing cooling or heating in a desperate bid to keep a roof over their heads,” she said.

“We urge the government to heed the top recommendation of the Economic Inclusion Advisory Committee and substantially lift JobSeeker and Youth Allowance so that people can live with dignity.”

Cut through the noise of federal politics with news, views and expert analysis. Subscribers can sign up to our weekly Inside Politics newsletter.