Today people relying on poverty-level Centrelink payments will receive an insulting \u201cincrease\u201d due to legislated indexation, a mechanism used to calculate new payment rates based on past CPI changes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As the government celebrates its generosity for delivering on legislated requirements, the cold reality is that the maximum that will land in our bank accounts is a pittance that leaves us further behind*:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Poor people are utterly exhausted by 4 years of Albanese government \u201cno-one left behind\u201d rhetoric and boasting<\/a> about so-called \u201cincreases\u201d to Centrelink payments. In reality, legislated indexation lags behind inflation and does not reflect the real increase in living costs for many people in poverty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Over the same period, we have suffered relentless price hikes across every essential item, from housing costs to energy bills, transport to groceries. For example, energy bills increased 22 per cent<\/a> in the past 2 years, while the Albanese government handed over $5 billion in subsidies to price gouging<\/a> energy companies whose profits soared. In the past two years, indexation has seen the JobSeeker payment change from $385 to $409 a week \u2013 or about 6 per cent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Indexation is not an increase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As the flow on effect of war bleeds through the economy and the RBA continues to punish people for reasons beyond our control, action must be taken to stop companies profiteering from crisis at the community\u2019s expense.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Antipoverty Centre is calling on the government to:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Tax breaks for the wealthy should be dealt with at this budget, but more must be done to reverse out-of-control inequality and fund essential supports that address high living costs and benefit us all such as public healthcare, housing, education and welfare.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Antipoverty Centre spokesperson Jay Coonan said:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Time and again this prime minister has failed to rise to the occasion. What does he want to be remembered for?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n People are hurting a lot right now and what we need is to have some faith restored.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n We need the government to stop hiding behind powerful lobby groups and muttering about consensus, while concentrating all the power and decision making in the hands of a tiny few who choose timidity over ambition.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n If the prime minister doesn\u2019t have the courage to help people out in our time of need he will only fuel more division and resentment.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n The community is crying out for bold changes that will reduce inequality and the damage done by high living costs. No more corporate subsidies, no more tightly targeted policies, no more kicking the can down the road.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n The things we are asking for are not as complicated as politicians want us to believe: increase Centrelink payments to ensure we can all live a decent life, invest in public housing to bring down housing costs for everyone, and abolish the tax breaks that go to people who profit from the rest of us suffering.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n If you need support you can seek guidance, counselling or crisis help from the below organisations or talk to someone you trust.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Today people relying on poverty-level Centrelink payments will receive an insulting \u201cincrease\u201d due to legislated indexation, a mechanism used to calculate new payment rates based on past CPI changes. As the government celebrates its generosity for delivering on legislated requirements, the cold reality is that the maximum that will land in our bank accounts is … Continue reading “Indexation is not an increase\u2019: welfare recipients react to Centrelink rise”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-38024","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-aussie"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38024","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38024"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38024\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38025,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38024\/revisions\/38025"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38024"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38024"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38024"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
Crisis support and counselling services<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n
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