Centrelink pension payments to rise in September to meet inflation
Pensioners, renters and single parents will receive a big income boost tomorrow. Here’s what you need to know.
About five million Australians will receive a boost to their incomes this Saturday, as support payments are lifted to keep up with inflation.
The age pension, carer payments, federal rent assistance, youth allowance and JobSeeker will all jump higher.
Single adult pensioners will receive an extra $29.70 a fortnight for a total payment of $1178.70, while couples will receive $888.50, a jump of $22.40.
Single parents will receive $1039.70, a lift of $16.20, while partnered parents will receive $734.40, an $11.40 increase.
Rent assistance lifts $3.40 to $215.40 for a single and rises $3.20 to $203 for a couple.
A single parent with three or more children will receive a $4.48 boost in rental assistance to $286.02.
JobSeeker payments are also rising.
For a single person aged 22 or older without children, the payment jumps $12.50 to $793.60.
The total dollar increase hangs on three measures of inflation: the consumer price index, weekly wage changes or, in the case of the age pension, the pensioner and beneficiary living cost index.
Whichever measure of inflation rises the most will become the benchmark used to determine how much incomes are boosted.
Australia’s social security payments are designed in this way to make sure income support doesn’t degrade in real value as inflation eats into purchasing power.
The indexed payments are determined twice a year, in September and March.
