Labor MPs who have advocated for an increase in the jobseeker base rate were mostly unimpressed by the prospect of their government limiting the raise to those aged over 55 in the upcoming federal budget.
Concerns are also growing that any changes to commonwealth rental assistance will also fall along generational divides and be lower than what is needed to meet the rising cost of housing, with a 25% increase firming as the likely figure, when advocates had called for 50%.
The Albanese government is yet to confirm any speculation, but there are concerns the changes to jobseeker will be a lowering of an existing age threshold for single people over the age of 60, who have been unemployed for more than nine months.
Currently, people aged over 60 can receive up to $745.20, which is an extra $52 a fortnight than the jobseeker payment for under 60-year-olds.
The treasurer, Jim Chalmers, would not confirm any of the reports and warned against assumptions, but also did not rule out any of the reports as wrong.
“I would encourage you to be careful about the assumptions that people are making about what’s in and not in the budget,” he said on Tuesday.
“There will be a number of elements to our cost-of-living relief, not all of them will be determined by age. For example, our energy bill relief plan which will be in the budget in a week’s time is for people on pensions and payments right across the board, not limited by age.”
Canberra MP Alicia Payne, the chair of the parliamentary friends of ending poverty group, said “we’ll wait and see what’s in the budget”.
“Any increase would be a good start, but we need a substantial increase for all jobseeker recipients.”
“I think it should be across the board, it should not be discriminatory,” said one outer-metro Labor MP.
Another Labor MP said: “I don’t think it’s adequate, people are in poverty across all the age groups, people are limited in their ability to look for work across all age groups.
“We need to do something about poverty, so a jobseeker increase for some is not sufficient.”
That MP also had concerns that only 46% of jobseeker recipients are on commonwealth rent assistance and that money “goes straight to the landlord, it doesn’t help feed them”.
“This has happened for 10 years, the can has just been kicked down the road. We know economic recovery and budget repair is important but it shouldn’t be the poorest to pay the price for it.”
Another MP said they will “continue to advocate for an increase in the overall rate” but noted that Chalmers had promised “cost of living relief focused on the most vulnerable”.
But the view was not universal. One Labor MP said phasing in increases sounded “sensible” and they were remaining open-minded about the cumulative effect of a rent assistance boost on top of the base rate for over 55s.
The chief executive of Homelessness Australia, Kate Colvin, said there was a “great irony” in the fact the government appeared to be “cutting people trying to seek work out of an adequate payment”.
“You can’t be healthy and ready to work if you’re not eating properly, if you don’t have a secure place to stay.”
“The cost increases in the rental market are just making it impossible for people on youth allowance and jobseeker to be able to find and afford a rental property, if they can secure one.”
Colvin noted that many recipients of youth allowance do not receive rental assistance because they live in share houses and are not on the lease, making an “adequate base payment” even more important.
The executive director of Anti-Poverty Week, Toni Wren, said the government had a chance to act now.
“If not now, when? To delay support makes it so much harder for individuals and families and harder for the government to do anything if we’re looking at tighter budgets in the future.”
