Introduction by Croakey: The Federal Government is under pressure to act urgently and boldly on the social determinants of health – from the draft National Suicide Prevention Strategy, released today and open for comment until 27 October, as well as the independent Rapid Review of Prevention Approaches to help stop gender-based violence, released last month.
Yet the Government has failed to sufficiently boost woefully low income security payments, which the cost of living crisis is exacerbating for many of the most vulnerable in communities.
The costs, for physical and mental health, are laid bare in a report published this week by the Australian Council of Social Service (ACOSS).
Marie McInerney writes:
“I wouldn’t wish this life on anyone”, is a graphic headline on the latest #RaiseTheRate survey report from the Australian Council of Social Service (ACOSS), which tracks the toll on physical and mental health of desperately low income security payments in the current cost of living crisis.
It quotes a former security guard and AusStudy recipient, Lester, from Adelaide, who said his $841-a-fortnight payment makes it very hard for him to afford life’s essentials.
After paying my rent I’ve got $201 left each fortnight to cover food, bills and medicine. I often have to skip meals and turn off the heating just to keep a roof over my head. I cannot tell you how difficult the past few years have been.”
ACOSS collected 760 responses from people receiving JobSeeker, Youth Allowance, Austudy, Parenting Payment and related income support payments – which range between $43 and $54 a day– over five weeks in July and August, at a time when much media coverage of the cost of living crisis has been on those struggling to manage their mortgages amid interest rate rises.
The survey highlights the depths of the crisis, and where whole-of-government responses are required to important equity issues, with respondents sharing fears that women escaping family violence will have to go back to violent partners, that one more rent rise will mean homelessness, and how “sometimes it’s a choice between food or fuel or bills”.
Its findings include:
- The inadequacy of income support payments harms people’s mental and physical health. More than eight in 10 respondents said that receiving income support negatively affected their physical health, and nine in ten said it negatively affected their mental health. Three quarters said they could not access healthcare and medicine because they cannot afford it.
- Even with Rent Assistance, income support payments are inadequate to cover the cost of private rental. Of the 410 people who reported renting privately, 94 percent are in housing stress, paying more than 30 percent of their income in rent alone. 52 percent reported paying more than half of their income on rent. 298 respondents in private rental reported being hit with a rent increase of up to $40 per week in the past year.
- Sufficient food is a discretionary item for people receiving income support. More than two-thirds of people reported reducing their intake of fresh fruit, vegetables, meat and other expensive items, with 64 percent stating that they skipped meals or ate less to get by (or both).
- People go to great lengths to pay their energy bills, including going to bed early to stay warm. Sixty-eight percent reported cutting their use of heating and cooling to afford energy bills, and 59 percent said they go without food or medicine to be able to pay their energy bill. 31 percent have an energy debt.
- It is very difficult to afford a car on income support. Most respondents said they have a car (69 percent), but 81 percent said that they don’t use it as much as they would like because they don’t have enough money, and nine percent reported they had stopped using it entirely. Seventy-five people said they had given up their car because they could not afford it whilst receiving income support.
“These findings are deeply disturbing and are a source of national shame,” said ACOSS Acting CEO Edwina MacDonald.
“The reality is that if you receive JobSeeker or a related income support payment, you are unable to afford essentials and are forced into a life of poverty and deprivation,” she said. “Income support should help people get through tough times, not keep them in a struggle for survival.”
Struggle for survival
That struggle is graphically illustrated with quotes from participants in the report:
“I don’t buy my all of my medication [because of cost], I am progressively losing my eyesight because of it.”
“I can’t begin treatment for osteoporosis until I have my teeth fixed and, because of the length of the waiting list, that could be two years. My bones are deteriorating because I can’t afford dental treatment.”
“We’ve barely been able to use the heater during winter as it’s simply too expensive to keep the house above 10 degrees.”
“If I don’t find work in a few weeks, I will have no choice but to put my possessions in storage and be homeless.”
“The National Rental Affordability Scheme [NRAS] has just finished so my rent is about to jump $250 per week, which I can’t afford. It’s a very stressful situation. Where I live, we are all single mums who are escaping family violence and all on Centrelink payments. Due to the NRAS ending, all of us are in the same boat. It’s very scary and may push some of the mums to actually go back to their ex and risk more family violence but they really have no choice. It’s move back or be homeless. It’s terrible.”
“It’s only since I’ve moved in with my father that housing is possible at all. My rent used to be 80-90 percent of my income.”
Inequality versus cost of living
After the 2024 Federal Budget, leading Indigenous academic Professor Bronwyn Fredericks warned that there is a risk that framing of the ‘cost of living crisis’ does not address equity, to differentiate people for whom rising costs are a brake on elective spending versus those who struggle to put food on the table.
“I don’t in any way want to pit one group against another, but there is a big difference between not being able to afford rising elite private school fees and not being able to pay for basic food items or pay the rent to put a roof over your head,” said Fredericks, who is Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Indigenous Engagement) at University of Queensland and also Co-Chair of Croakey Health Media.
In its report, ACOSS continues to press the case to #RaiseTheRate — a campaign that has gone for years, and was expected to see a better response from the Albanese Government than the previous LNP governments.
The Albanese Government increased JobSeeker by $56 a fortnight in September 2023 to $749.20 in the May 2023 budget announcement, but provided only a small boost to Commonwealth Rental Assistance in this year’s Budget, despite, as ACOSS said at the time, delivering “eyewatering tax cuts to the wealthiest people in the country”.
A $300 energy rebate was the only cash support the majority of people on JobSeeker and Youth Allowance would receive — a payment that has been made to everyone, regardless of income: an “extraordinarily wasteful” initiative, ACOSS said.
ACOSS is urging the Government to:
- Lift income support payments to at least the pension rate, currently $80 a day, and index them to wages as well as price movements, as are pensions
- Establish a disability and illness supplement to recognise the additional costs that people with disability and chronic illness face
- Establish a single parent supplement
- Ensure that Commonwealth Rent Assistance is increased to reflect average rents paid.
For assistance
Lifeline: 13 11 14
Suicide Call Back Service: 1300 659 467
beyondblue: 1300 224 636
13Yarn: 13 92 76
Kids Helpline: 1800 551 800
QLife: 1800 184 527
Check-In (VMIAC, Victoria): 1800 845 109
Lived Experience Telephone Line Service: 1800 013 755
See Croakey’s archive of articles on poverty
