PARLIAMENTARIANS, including many members of the crossbench, have joined community sector leaders in calling on the parliament to raise the rate of income support.
In response, People with Disability Australia (PWDA) president Trinity Ford said: “Right now, people with disability are being pushed deeper into poverty because income support payments like JobSeeker and the Disability Support Pension are too low to cover the basics.
“Living with disability comes with extra costs like medication, treatment and accessible housing but our income support system doesn’t take this into account.
“People with Disability Australia joins the call to Raise the Rate so people with disability can afford the basics and the additional costs of disability.”
MPs Bridget Archer, Kate Chaney, Helen Haines, Monique Ryan, Zali Steggall, Kylea Tink and Andrew Wilkie, and Senators Penny Allman-Payne and David Pocock have called for the parliament to ease cost-of-living pressure for those struggling the most by raising the rate of JobSeeker, Youth Allowance, Parenting Payment and related payments to a livable level.
Currently JobSeeker is just $56 a day and Youth Allowance just $47 a day. Both rates are less than half the minimum wage and leave people unable to afford basic necessities such as rent, food and medicine.
Comments from politicians have included those from Federal Member for Bass Bridget Archer.
“There’s no doubt that many people in our community are being left behind by this government,” she said.
“My office is repeatedly contacted by constituents experiencing severe disadvantage and it has only continued to increase.
“It’s not acceptable in a country like Australia. More urgently needs to be done to support the most vulnerable in our society.”
ACOSS CEO Cassandra Goldie agreed it was unacceptable that in one of the wealthiest countries in the world, people were skipping meals and sleeping in cars.
