Catholic Communications, Sydney Archdiocese,
30 Apr 2013
30 Apr 2013
The Newstart Allowance pays jobseekers $243.40 a week or just $35 a day
On the eve of the Feast Day of St Joseph the Worker, Bishop Christopher Saunders has slammed the low levels of Government income support payments to hundreds of thousands of Australians who are seeking work, and says this is driving individuals and families into poverty.
"More than 800,000 Australians struggle to survive on employment related payments. The majority receive the Newstart Allowance which at the single rate is less than $250 per week or just $35 a day," he says, pointing out that this is well below the current minimum wage of $606.40 per week for an adult worker and more than $100 per week below single aged pensioner payments of $367 per week.
Chair of the Australian Catholic Social Justice Council (ACSJC), Bishop Saunders focussed on the "woeful inadequacy" of the Newstart and other employment related payments in his annual Pastoral Letter marking the Feast of St Joseph the Worker which is celebrated 1st May.
The Newstart Allowance has not been increased in since 1994, despite the rises in the cost of living over this almost 20 year period with the result, the Bishop says that as many as 80% of recipients are experiencing three or more indicators of financial stress each year. These indicators include being unable to pay utility bills, going further into debt and having no back up financial resources for any emergency.
Bishop Christopher Saunders
"Many of these people including families with children are going without meals just to make ends meet," he says adding that increasingly Australia's charities are picking up the pieces for a social security system that is now failing the fundamental test of getting food on the table.
Not only has the Newstart Allowance failed to keep pace with community living standards and cost of living increases over almost two decades but it was designed at a time when full employment was the norm and periods of unemployment were brief.
"Long-term unemployment is now a significant feature of the labour market and in the high employment environment, those remaining on benefits for long periods tend to experience higher levels of disadvantage," the Bishop says. "Over 60% of Newstart recipients have been on the payment for more than a year and 20 percent or one in five, for five years or longer."
"The payment often known as the dole was designed to tide "job-ready" people over the brief spells between jobs," he says. But in changed world, brief spells without work is no longer the case.
To enable people to live with dignity as they look for work after being made redundant or lost their jobs through downsizing or a manufacturing company going out of business, the ACSJC is supporting calls by charities such as the Society of St Vincent de Paul, Catholic Social Services, Anglicare, the Salvation Army together with many business leaders for the base payment of the Newstart Allowance to be increased by a minimum of $50 per week.
Hundreds of thousands seeking work forced into poverty
"It has long been the position of policy-makers that the low rate of the Newstart Allowance functions as an incentive to finding work. Far from being an incentive, it has now become a barrier to work," Bishop Saunders says. "For many, the payment does not cover the costs of job search and circumstances of financial stress can also detract from seeking of employment and preparing for interviews."
Bishop Saunders says it is time for a "new start," one that focuses first on the adequacy of the Newstart and other allowance payments," Bishop Saunders says.
The call by the Bishop for the Government to urgently increase the Newstart Allowance in line with pensions and other entitlements comes at the same time Anglicare, the charitable arm of the Anglican Church, found in its national survey on rental affordability that only one percent of almost 56,000 rental properties across Australia are affordable to anyone on a Newstart Allowance, a parenting payment or similar entitlement.
SHARED FROM ARCHDIOCESE OF SYDNEY
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