Anglicare Australia not only wants federal Labor to raise all welfare payments, it is also calling for an independent 鈥淪ocial Security Commission鈥 with the power to 鈥渟et and adjust payments based on the actual cost of living鈥.
The organisation issued the call after publishing its latest聽听谤别辫辞谤迟.
The report compared data on rent, transport and food against rates of income support. It found that it is 鈥渋mpossible鈥 to live alone on the JobSeeker payment.
A single person living in a one-bedroom rental would have basic weekly living costs which exceed the JobSeeker payment by $135.
A single person living in a sharehouse would have only $127 a week left after basic costs. A single parent with one child, on the Single Parenting Payment, would have just $24 left.
Two people on the JobSeeker payment with two children would have living costs exceeding their payment by $17 a week.
Crucially, these calculations do not include other essentials such as electricity, water and phone bills, or medical costs and emergency expenses.
Previous Anglicare Australia reports have documented the difficulties faced by those on low incomes for years. They include skipping meals, getting into debt and navigating precarious and unstable housing.
This report said those the lowest incomes have fallen 鈥渆ven further behind鈥 as the price of fresh food has 鈥渋ncreased dramatically and the cost of petrol reached record highs last year鈥.
At the same time, 鈥渢he rental market has never been less affordable鈥.
There has been no significant rise to JobSeeker and other payments since 1994.
Welfare payments are not benchmarked against the poverty line or any measure that rises with living costs: they are tied to the Consumer Price Index, which is 鈥渆xplicitly not designed to measure essential living costs鈥.
The only time JobSeeker recipients had some relief was during the COVID-19 lockdowns when the Coalition temporarily doubled welfare payments.
The report urged raising all payments immediately and a new independent Social Security Commission, with powers to 鈥渟et and adjust payments based on the actual cost of living鈥.
It said the commission should include representatives with lived experience of poverty.
Anglicare also called for action to combat skyrocketing rents, which have increased by more than 50% since 2020, including an average 20% increase in the past year.
Anglicare鈥檚 previous聽聽found that there were no affordable homes for someone on JobSeeker and only 1% affordable for someone on the Single Parenting Payment.
It said supply of housing is not the issue. 鈥淚ncreasing supply in the private market has simply failed to make housing more affordable.
鈥淭he undersupply is not in housing, but in social and affordable housing.鈥
The report called on governments to use negative gearing to 鈥渢arget investment in social and affordable housing鈥 and work with state and territory governments to grow the supply of such housing by 25,000 dwellings each year.
It called on Labor to 鈥渟trengthen rental laws and protect people from unfair evictions and rent increases鈥 and to 鈥渋ncrementally鈥 reduce the capital gains tax discount.