A plan to increase jobseeker payments for struggling Aussies has been rejected by Barnaby Joyce, who has called on welfare recipients to look for jobs.
JobSeeker will increase by $56 every two weeks if the House passes the Social Security changes announced in the May budget.
The increase is the result of a $40 base rate budget increase and a six-month indexation increase of 2.2 percent.
Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek explained Monday morning how this much-needed boost would help struggling families during the cost-of-living crisis.
But Nationals MP Barnaby Joyce was critical of the move as the coalition moves to reverse the Albanian government’s planned increase.
Barnaby Joyce (pictured) has criticized a plan by the Albanian government to increase the number of job seekers – which was already part of the budget and the result of indexation
“This isn’t going to be a big dent,” he said on Seven’s morning show, Sunrise.
‘Did you know that there are more than 156,000 people who have been on unemployment benefits for more than ten years?
“There is another excess of 150,000 who received unemployment benefits between five and ten years,” explains Joyce.
According to the Business Council of Australia (BCA), there have been about 40,000 people on JobSeeker for 10 years.
“In today’s circumstances where motels are screaming for workers, farmers are screaming for workers, everyone is screaming to get people to work, it seems perverse that there are people who decided not to work for ten years,” Mr. Joyce continued. .
“If they don’t have a disability pension or unemployment benefit, what do they do?”
The opposition has indicated that it wants to raise the threshold before benefits start to decrease.
Mr Joyce claimed the coalition was trying to ‘encourage people to take a substantive step in their lives’ by finding work.
“The best they (unemployed) can do is get a job, that’s the best security they can have,” he added.
Ms Plibersek responded back, claiming that three-quarters of people on unemployment benefits would gain ‘no benefit’ from the opposition proposal – a point that has been stressed by Social Affairs Minister Amanda Rishworth.
JobSeeker is expected to increase by $56 every two weeks if parliament passes the welfare changes announced in the budget. The increase is the result of a $40 base rate budget increase and a six-month indexation increase of 2.2 percent
Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek (pictured) explained how this much-needed boost would help families during the cost-of-living crisis on Sunrise
Opposition leader Peter Dutton has made it clear that the coalition will not stand in the way of an increase in benefits, but will push for changes to increase incentives to work.
The change proposed by the opposition would maintain the current rate and allow JobSeeker recipients to take home $300 every two weeks instead of $150, while still receiving all benefits.
Mr Dutton said that while the money budgeted for the increase would be better spent on a model that would allow people to work longer hours, the Liberals would not oppose it.
But he did not expect the coalition’s proposal to be supported in parliament.
“Ultimately if that falls – as we suspect it will, unfortunately because I think it’s good policy – then we will support the government’s $40 increase,” he told reporters in Canberra.
Mr Dutton said a Liberal National government would not withdraw the tariff increase if elected.
Ms Rishworth said the opposition’s proposal would have unintended consequences and would do nothing for the 77 per cent of recipients who cannot access the income-free threshold.
She also said it would do nothing to remove barriers to work for people on welfare.
“Our conservative estimates are that if the income-free area doubled, there would be an additional 50,000 people who would qualify for JobSeeker overnight because the thresholds at which they are cut off would rise,” she said.
“This measure could encourage longer-term reliance on temporary work and jobseekers rather than a transition to the workforce.”
Opposition leader Peter Dutton (pictured) said the coalition will not stand in the way of an increase in benefits, but will push for changes to increase incentives to work
A leading advocacy group said the income-free threshold was $300 before the coalition government lowered it and urged the Albanian government to restore the higher level (stock image)
A leading advocacy group said the income-free threshold was $300 in 2020/21 before the coalition government lowered it and urged the Albanian government to restore the higher level.
“The government should approve any proposal that would ensure that welfare recipients and low-income workers do not live in poverty,” said Kristin O’Connell, spokesperson for the Antipoverty Centre.
“They urgently need to increase the income-free space to better support one in five people on unemployment benefits who are in employment and ensure that the lowest-income workers are better connected to the safety net.”
Mehreen Faruqi, acting leader of the Greens, said the increase proposed by the government was woefully inadequate and amounted to an additional $4 a day.
“We certainly won’t stand in the way of this increase, but we know it’s not enough,” she said.
“The government should raise JobSeeker above the poverty line in this cost-of-living crisis (because) so many people are being hurt and disadvantaged, people are really struggling to put food on the table.”
Michael Sukkar, the spokesperson for the opposition social service, said the increase in JobSeeker amounted to the government paying people more not to work, while companies were clamoring for staff due to historically low unemployment.
He said increasing the amount they could earn before benefits ended would encourage people to take up more part-time work.
The Albanian government has ruled out further living expenses after introducing $14.6 billion in measures over four years, including bulk billing incentives, energy bill relief and increases in jobseeker payments.