‘Food or rent’: Choice Aussies forced to make as cost-of-living crisis takes its toll

Struggling Australians are being left to choose between paying for food or rent as the cost-of-living crisis worsens.

Australians are skipping showers and meals in order to pay their rent – including in draughty, mouse-infected houses – as welfare recipients struggle to stretch their “dismal” daily rate of pay.

Independent senator David Pocock and the Australian Council of Social Services are urgently calling for the federal government to increase welfare payments to help Australians struggling to survive.

Currently, JobSeeker recipients receive just $46 a day, while the Youth Allowance works out to be $38 a day. ACOSS is calling for all payments to be raised to at least $73 a day.

Senator Pocock said he understood the government had a difficult fiscal situation to balance, but everyday Australians were crying out for help.

Independent senator David Pocock has called on the federal government to increase the daily rate of JobSeeker payments. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Gary Ramage

“We’re a wealthy country, and it seems to me that people who are in between jobs or studying should be able to live above the poverty line, to actually be able to put food on the table,” he said.

“There are so many stories of people skipping meals, skipping medicines, having to walk kilometres to get to job interviews and to Centrelink.

“I’m calling on the government to make this a priority, to actually look after everyday Australians.”

Canberra student Sam Thomas, 21, said of the $450 he received in government help each fortnight, most went to pay rent in a “substandard” lodging.

“The kind of rent you can afford on $225 a week is really far away from campus. It’s draughty, mouse-infested, mouldy and uninsulated,” he said.

“I can only really get by because my mum sends me money.

“I worry about being evicted.”

Sam Thomas said he often worries about being evicted from his mouldy, mouse-infested house because his Youth Allowance payments aren’t enough.Picture: NCA NewsWire / Gary Ramage

ACOSS acting director of policy and advocacy Charmaine Crowe said the government “must address” this issue in the October budget.

“The government has tough decisions to make, (but) people everyday are having to make difficult decisions about whether they pay for their groceries or their diabetes medication or if they pay the rent – these are the tough decisions people are making every day,” she said.

“It’s incumbent on the federal government to address this issue as soon as possible.

“We need to see a substantial increase.”