Welfare payments are unlikely to be increased further by the government beyond indexation, despite the growing cost of basic goods and services.
The jobseeker payment is slated to increase by $56 a fortnight on 20 September, when the $40 a fortnight increase announced in the budget will come into effect, as well as 2.2% indexation for cost of living.
Social security payments are adjusted for inflation automatically, although governments can decide whether or not to let that indexation flow through.
The final rate of indexation for the single parenting payment and the pension are not yet finalised, but will be announced in the next month. Youth allowance, Austudy and the youth disability pension are among the welfare payments only indexed once a year on 1 January, and will see no further increase beyond what was announced in the budget.
The safety net legislation which sets out the budget increases to jobseeker, commonwealth rent assistance, the pensions and single parent payment will be among the first order of government business when parliament resumes on Monday.
The legislation must pass this sitting in order for the increases to begin flowing by 20 September.
Social services minister Amanda Rishworth said the jobseeker indexation would apply on top of the $40 increase announced in May, meaning an additional $4 a day for people on the unemployment payment.
But despite price jumps in non-discretionary goods and services like utilities, rent and food outstripping the increase, and a $20bn budget surplus, Rishworth said there was unlikely to be any further cost-of-living relief forthcoming this year.
“The changes we’re making – whether it’s to rent assistance, jobseeker – are structural changes,” she told ABC Insiders.
“They’re ongoing increases that will be applied. So when you talk about the surplus from last year, that’s a very different circumstance to the reforms that we’ve made which are ongoing and structural. We have calibrated these to be responsible to help people that are doing it tough.”
The cost-of-living increase and subsequent indexation flow-on has meant the jobseeker rate has grown by 17% since May 2022, increasing from $642.70 to $749.20.
But it remains well below the poverty line with the government ignoring advice from its own expert committee to lift the jobseeker rate to at least $845 a fortnight – 90% of the aged pension – claiming it was doing all it could afford.
Rishworth said the focus was on “those doing it toughest”.
The majority of people on jobseeker and the single parenting payment are living in poverty, with limited ability to find a rental property
