More low-income earners in Canberra are seeking support from community sector organisations with the rising cost of living hitting the hardest for people receiving the smallest pay cheques, a new report has found.
The removal of temporary COVID-19 income supports has also put extra pressure on lower socio-economic groups, the ACT Council of Social Service report said.
The phase out of JobKeeper and coronavirus supplement is estimated to have caused an increase in the number of Canberrans living below the poverty line to above 38,000, including 9000 children.
The council's deputy chief executive, Adam Poulter, said community sector organisations were feeling stretched by the extra support that was needed to be provided to the community.
"Over the past 12 months, Canberra's community organisations have seen demand for support increase as households have struggled to stretch declining budgets to cover the rising costs of the basics," Mr Poulter said.
"Over two thirds of community sector staff reported that in the past year, levels of poverty and disadvantage had increased among the groups they support."
The report analysed the Canberra consumer price index from the past five years, finding fuel has increased by 35 per cent and electricity by 28 per cent in the region.
Mr Poulter says the sharp rise in the cost of living at the same time temporary income support, which lifted thousands of Canberrans out of poverty, was removed had left an extremely negative effect on the community.
Commonwealth rent assistance also failed to protect most recipients from housing stress, the annual cost-of-living report said.
"Canberra remains the most expensive capital city to rent a house or a unit and the ACT has the highest rate of rental stress among low income private renters," Mr Poulter said.
The report called on the territory and federal governments to act to lessen the financial burdens on low-income earners.
Mr Poulter called on the federal government to raise the rate of working age payments to at least $70 a day and for the government to deliver 25,000 social and affordable housing dwellings a year.
"This needs to be done in partnership with the ACT government to deliver an estimated annual need of almost 600 additional social and affordable homes in the ACT," he said.
