Charities supporting Border people doing it tough have labelled the JobSeeker increase a "disappointment" with fears it won't stop people from slipping further below the poverty line.
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GP, Albury councillor and Greens member Amanda Cohn weighed in on the $50 a fortnight increase announced by Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Tuesday saying the support payment needs to be around $80 a day.
"Raising JobSeeker by $25 a week is not a raise when people are about to be plunged back to pre-pandemic support," she posted on her public Facebook page.
"The Morrison government is knowingly and deliberately leaving people who need our support in poverty.
"I saw the tangible difference the coronavirus supplements made to my patients last year.
"So many people could finally afford quality food, or to pay for physiotherapy or hydrotherapy sessions, or simply didn't have to deal with the mental health pressure of having to choose between paying bills and filling their scripts.
"In one of the wealthiest and luckiest countries in the world, it is abhorrent that a single person should be forced to live in poverty.
"Now is the time to raise all social support payments above the poverty line."
IN OTHER NEWS:
An eligible single person with no children is paid $715.70 a fortnight until March 31.
Of this, $565.70 consists of the JobSeeker payment and $150 is the coronavirus supplement, which runs out on March 31.
The new rate will start from April 1 at $615.70 a fortnight, which is just $307.85 a week, or under $44 a day.
St Vincent de Paul and Uniting Care have been supporting Border residents through the past 12 months, both charities say the increase is not enough.
"An increase to JobSeeker of $50 a fortnight or less than $4 a day is massive disappointment for people who depend on it and groups like Vinnies who help them," Vinnies NSW chief executive Jack de Groot said. "This works out to be $3.57 a day, it's a tiny increase and will not solve the underlying problem people on JobSeeker experience - being trapped in poverty.
"On top of this, the government is working to make JobSeeker more punitive. The new standards for mutual obligations are exploitative and this hotline to dob in people receiving JobSeeker is entirely mean-spirited.
Uniting Vic.Tas chief executive Bronwyn Pike said the increase won't prevent millions of Australians slipping further into poverty.
"It just doesn't go far enough - it's a missed opportunity," she said.
"The announcement is a long overdue acknowledgement $40 a day is nowhere near enough for people to live on, but this token increase will do very little to ease the suffering."
