Let's try the cheapest and easiest way to help those on income support

Federal Treasurer Jim Chalmers has argued that there is more than one way to help people on income support, citing concerns about pushing the inflation rate up even further. However, this decision represents a rejection of the government-appointed Economic Inclusion Advisory Commission's April report, which recommended an increase in JobSeeker to 90 per cent of age pension and indexation, "as a matter of urgency".

Prior to this federal budget, it must be acknowledged that the Albanese government instigated many of the recommendations either in part or in full from the 2023 report from the committee. Last year, we saw a $4.9 billion investment in increasing the working age and student payments leading to around 1.1 million income support recipients receiving increased payments of about $4 a day. The government also boosted Commonwealth Rent Assistance by $2.7 billion to increase the maximum rates by 15 per cent.

Furthermore, the Employment White Paper increased the weight placed on the achievement of full employment, most importantly moving away from basing policy on an unemployment target and towards a focus on job quality over job numbers, and the implementation of a "broad suite of measures to gauge the extent of current underutilisation and track progress towards the longer-term full employment objective".

This bred hope that the committees advising the government on budgetary priorities were at least heard, but I worry that hope was false.

Despite the 2023 changes, people on income support payments, particularly on Jobseeker, are still being held under the poverty line. This is due at least in part to the inadequacy of the payment especially in this cost-of-living climate, and the difficulty of establishing eligibility for disability support pension.

Generally, the poverty line is defined as being 50 per cent of median household income, which works out to be about $1203 a fortnight for a single person (including housing). This is compared to the maximum fortnightly rate for the Jobseeker Payment of $762.70, boosted to $950.90 a fortnight with the maximum rate of rent assistance.

Without lived experience, it is difficult, perhaps, to look at these numbers and truly understand what they mean in real terms. So for those of you lucky enough to never have suffered a personal setback that saw you experiencing unemployment and a dramatic loss of income, let's take a moment to really think about how living under the poverty line affects a person's everyday life.

Firstly, limited financial resources can lead to poor nutrition, skipped meals, inadequate and insecure housing, and reduced access to healthcare, resulting in higher rates of health problems that cannot be addressed appropriately. Yes, we have Medicare, but the gap between rebates and fees are cost prohibitive for those living on income support. If you are regionally or remotely based, this can also impact your ability to access healthcare because travelling to the nearest provider costs money.

Secondly, children living in poverty may struggle with school attendance, have limited access to educational resources and face academic performance challenges. This may be due to the stress in their homelife, inadequate nutrition or housing crises, lack of sustainable access to internet and transportation, and so on.

Thirdly, adults may find that living in poverty actually harms their chances of securing stable employment due to transportation and related reliability issues, reduced access to education and resources that can enhance skills, or appropriate work experience.

Finally, living in poverty can lead to social isolation, personal embarrassment, inability to participate in community activities or to access social networks, leading to stress and mental health concerns stemming from the constant worries regarding financial insecurity. When you cannot access the healthcare you need to manage mental health issues because you can't afford it, this just perpetuates the same cycle.

So, I agree that there are more ways to help people on income support to survive. They could fix Medicare, remove fee gaps, increase accessibility to specialised health services in regional/remote areas, fund food banks, cap private rental prices, make it mandatory for private rentals to have solar power, right the power imbalance between tenants and landlords, increase public housing availability, make mental health support free, improve education support, especially in regional/remote Australia...

But let's start with the cheapest, easiest option and go from there, shall we: increase working age payments to a liveable rate.