It’s here guys! After the webpage being embargoed for what seemed like forever, the March 20 indexation of welfare payments has finally come out, and are you ready to spend up?
Don't be misled by false claims that pensions are up.
They've not gone up more than indexation for the last 3 years.
On my partner rate pension, I’ll be getting $3.50 “extra” a fortnight in my bank account. Looking at yesterday’s Aldi receipt, that’s worth about 600g of tomatoes or 3 tins of tuna or 2 UHT milks.
Who will be the first Labor MP to brag about this? I am going to mail them a 'bragged about automatic indexation again award' award pic.twitter.com/CzK6hup4wY
Let’s add in that 80c rent assistance “boost” and the $4.30 a fortnight covers a couple tins of dog food. And you know that’s where I spend my money first before anything for us lol Fortunately my rent only went up $10 a week last year so I’m not as behind as some who’ll lose out from this, especially if the thresholds mean their rent assistance goes down this year :/ Looking to my Aldi receipt there is nothing under 80c on there, even my mineral water is 89c a bottle.
Rent assistance indexation
For those on jobseeker, $3.10 a fortnight will find its way to your account. And the supplements aren’t going up any of course.
JobSeeker indexation
They better not dare use us as election fodder. We will kick back.
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Been doing some reminiscing of sorts in preparations for the 5th anniversary or the COVID supplement and the long pause of “mutual” obligations. I was NOT in a good place back then, but I was getting the covid supplement after my hours got dramatically cut after disability respites and day programs closed down and we got cut to minimum contracted hours wherever they could place us in residential settings. I was then still getting it when I did eventually lose my job, and was looking at my bank statements shocked to see my total Newstart payment (single) including rent assistance was only $90 less than my (partner) DSP and rent assistance now – $970 vs $1061.60.
We’re getting the “boost” of, I’m told, 0.4% thanks to low inflation from March $20, which’ll take it to around $1065, give or take. Thanks Labor!
The best part of getting DSP was the removal of mutual obligations. It left me free to participate in therapy, do my little advocacy stuff, help family and friends, and just exist peacefully as possible. I’ve actually been doing a small amount of paid work in the past year, mostly online, but also exam supervision and before that election work. Stuff I can do when I have the energy and mental capacity and things that take my interest. I’ve had people approach me about applying for (social) media work with more hours, and I’m not up for that yet consistently but yeah, I’m starting to see more how that could work for me, and for them, and the knowledge that I might actually be a useful engine is nice. It’s also great to know that I do have the DSP to back me up, even if I am working, if I need to step back there’s that.
Being on DSP and my own timetable means I can also torture myself by watching Senate estimates, such as the session last week with DEWR Secretary Natalie James and Minister Murray Watt.
The government has not investigated the deaths of those who had their payments unlawfully cancelled, nor have they been instructed to do so either. It's time to end "mutual" obligations once and for all. 🧵 pic.twitter.com/96r1TMZH53
— Antipoverty Centre (@antipovertycent) March 2, 2025
Yesterday during senate estimates the government admitted they think their welfare compliance system may not be operating lawfully. Watch 👇🏻 pic.twitter.com/ilgY3A3DAP
What I got from the session was that the department is not confident that people aren’t being suspended due to errors with their system. What they have done is stopped cancellations at this point, more due to the recent discovery that their guidelines say they’re not meant to cut off anyone who doesn’t have any money saved (which is basically everyone) – but that doesn’t mean they can’t just keep suspending people, which is effectively the same since you have no money if you’re not getting your welfare payment.
So the department doesn’t know if they’re cutting people off incorrectly (let alone illegally) and they seem to be happy to continue with enforcing mutual obligations. They’re happy with how it’s going, and seem more concerned about “provider viability” than whether people are being left without any money to feed and house themselves, about whether they’re putting people in danger of suicide or other misadventure.
And that’s just those ten. We know others who are still owed money from being cut off incorrectly or illegally who haven’t received repayment, so there’s likely more out there who aren’t doing so well.
It’s a mess. And that’s without even getting to the well known issues people have with their providers cutting them off because they weren’t marked present for a meeting, or demanding people complete phone meetings in a cyclone when mutual obligations have been stopped in preparation for a disaster.
(I’m also concerned for the staff who are presumably at home preparing themselves and being made to make unnecessary phone calls to people)
I haven’t heard if the pause has even gone through to people on the Workforce Australia app or by SMS, but wouldn’t be surprised if people are notified after the fact like during the rolling pause at the start of the year.
So yeah, a sorta apology (“I absolutely and unreservedly apologise on behalf of the department that we cannot have full confidence in this system delivering what it’s intended to deliver”) for a known error but keeping the system that is still possibly illegally cutting people off their tiny subsistence payments while you get it looked into isn’t going to cut it anymore. You can’t just say sorry for a known error that’s killed people, and have related errors still under investigations and needing to be paid back (let alone compensated) and still say you trust in the system and are happy to have it doing this because you aren’t turning your mind to it.
Suspend mutual obligations now, while you get your house in order. But why would you when nothing but promotions and excuses came from Robodebt.
And that’s before we actually talk about how much harm, rather than the expected help, is caused by “providers”.
(Preferably get rid of them altogether and create a voluntary, effective, public job-getting support service that people actually WANT to engage with)
But my updated GTA has downloaded and I’m gonna go cause some chaos.
— Avery Howard (they/them) (@AveryHowardAU) April 28, 2023
I think it’s that most Labor supporters seems to be okay with Labor’s record this term on welfare. After insisting in opposition that welfare payments weren’t enough, and that they should indeed be above the poverty line. And that the basic doubling of Job Seeker when the initial Covid lockdowns were on was a good thing actually, Labor in government has been a lot different in practice.
When they stopped the Covid supplement, the LNP gave JobSeekers a $50 a fortnight base rate raise. Labor came in and after being advised by their own Economic Inclusion Committee that it needed to be raised to (?)90% of the pension rate, they gave a $40 a fortnight raise. Which, in case you missed it, nowhere near that. As of today, the base rate of Job Seeker is $693.10 a fortnight, less than $350 a week if you prefer to look at it that way.
But people also got a “boost” (hate that term) to their rent assistance, didn’t they? Well, there were two “boosts” outside the usual CPI indexation. When Labor came in, a single person with no dependents could get $145.80 a fortnight rent assistance if living alone and paying $324.60+ rent. Right now, if you pay more than $430.60 a fortnight rent, you’ll get $211.20 a fortnight rent assistance. It’ll index again March 20, right around when we’re expecting an early budget ahead of the election, possible to about $215 if it goes up about 2%, based on an annual 4% inflation rate (which it’ll be less since, you know, Labor fixed overall inflation). With those two boosts, it’s gone up $70/fn or $35 a week in 3 years. If you’re rent’s gone up less than $35/week over the last 3 years that’s great, but very much an outlier.
So yeah, not sure what’s “aggressive” about those lil increases. Pensions – aged, disability, carer’s, single parent – have only had regular indexation, no little $20 sweeteners, I guess because they weren’t so horrific. But they’re still below the poverty line (running with $88/day Henderson poverty line unless we ever get an updated measure, another thing Labor talked to the talk on in opposition and the economic inclusion committee was ignored on), and “allowing” aged pensioners and carers to work more before losing payments is nice for those who can, and can work consistently, but many are on those payments because, due to age, disability, or caring responsibility, paid work isn’t going to be the best way for them to meet their needs for food, healthcare and shelter, which of course all cost more with a disability.
Poverty makes people vulnerable to exploitation. Whether that’s remaining in an abusive personal relationship because you can’t afford to live anywhere else, or you take on unsafe or underpaid work, it’s anything that means you have to give up safety or your values to just survive.
This week, it looks like some of the racist / antisemitic / anti-Islamic attacks and graffiti in the Sydney area may have been carried out by people paid to do so. Kinda like the attack on Burgertory, tho what came of that?
[NSW Police said detectives arrested a 33-year-old Camperdown man overnight after executing search warrants at two addresses on Pyrmont Bridge Road.]
I know this street; the police photo was taken right outside of social housing blocks. What is going on?https://t.co/1nryFrNybi
So, let’s say some of the people are doing these divisive things because they’re been paid. They always say that everyone has a price, it just differs depending on the emphasis you place on different areas of your life and how desperate you are to go against your beliefs, or the law, to survive another week. To pay off a debt, to fix that car, to escape the other unsafe part of your life.
If they were social housing tenants, they’re likely on welfare, which is well below the poverty line. They’re guaranteed to be struggling in a country where double income families are struggling. So, whether it’s shoplifting dinner, selling some powertools that fell off the back of a tradie’s ute, or seeing an ad that promises thousands for an act of vandalism that you may or may not be caught for, you’re vulnerable, whether you’re actually racist or not.
Another reason I say social cohesion is something we have to support people to attain, rather than penalise those who are not toeing the line of the day. A fed and housed community is a happy one. That’s where you get your social cohesion, not by leaving people vulnerable to radical acts to put food on the table for their kids.
Albanese and co need to see this, and support people. Support them financially. Support them with housing. Support them to be able to work in non-exploitative jobs. To associate with who they want to because they can afford to choose that.
Regulars here know the story – I shop around foodbanks and Aldi and occasionally the majors since I have all three in my major town centre, in order to get the best value for myself and my little family that looks different each time I take stock. I haven’t gotten back to doing that this year – the food charities are reopening this week after Xmas shutdown, and I don’t have access to a car all the time since one is off the road at the moment. So I’m shopping at Aldi (or my partner is) and we’re getting our meal boxes and I’m sure it’s better for my waistline to not be able to get more food for less, but ugh I’m bored lol. Also, my stepson’s summer job just ended so he’s eating more at home and earning less until the Centrelink systems are reliable enough to reapply for jobseeker or he can find another casual job around the place.
I knew that charities on the ground were facing increased costs for their purchases from Foodbank, but I didn’t realise it had gone up so much.
But I don’t see the answer as giving more money to Foodbank itself. They have corporate and individual donors, they have government funding, volunteer labour and other in-kind support, and yet they still have to charge more to the charities on the ground to receive the food and other items.
I also find myself even more cranky at the local charities that on-sell the items with significant markups (to just under full major supermarket prices) to fund their other work. Whether that’s to fund their free food hampers to those even more in need than the regular foodbank shopper, to pay their rent of warehouses, or to go into their missionary coffers (yes it happens), if there’s such a shortage of food coming into Foodbank warehouses as donations or being purchased it shouldn’t be marked up. Selling it on at your cost when it’s an essential item should be expected. (I’ll pay a markup on my short-dated Lindt though, happy to help when I’m able).
I’ll come back to it again – people need enough money to survive. They need to be able to afford to buy the food and other essential items they need to survive. Welfare rates need to be above the poverty line. People need to be able to afford to buy groceries and afford healthcare. There’s a lot that candidates can take into the election this year, and I want to see more of them promising to do the easy thing to lift millions out of poverty – Raising the rate of all welfare payments above the poverty line. That will cut demand greatly for emergency hampers that charities hand out each week. That will enable people to be able to directly support their own families and friends in need.
There is a place for emergency help – but having large corporate charity machines is not lessening the need for it.
