Ministers and Senators Behaving Badly Series 4

If you can't convince them, then confuse them …
“We have said that face-to-face servicing is not to occur. I understand and
I’m aware of the issue that you’re raising. Without going into the specifics
and taking into account privacy considerations, that matter is being
investigated by us at the moment.”
The Saturday Paper can confirm Roker has not been contacted by the
department as part of its investigation.
As the Commonwealth pours hundreds of millions of dollars into the
booming job-agency sector, government ministers are quibbling about
whether to raise the rate of income support payments.
From September 25, the rate of the coronavirus supplement will be cut by
$300 and it remains unclear whether the boost will be maintained at all
past December. Its elimination would mark a return to the base rate of the
JobSeeker payment – formerly known as the Newstart Allowance – which
saw hundreds of thousands trying to live on roughly $40 a day.
Earlier this month, the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW)
quietly released its latest housing assistance report. There was no fanfare,
no media release.
Buried in the supplementary data tables is government data that has never
been released, showing the level of housing stress experienced by people
on different welfare payments.
As at July last year, even with Commonwealth Rent Assistance (CRA), more
than 60 per cent of people on Newstart were in rental stress – paying more
than 30 per cent of their total income on rent.
For those without CRA, almost 88 per cent were in rental stress.
Under the Covid-19 arrangements, neither the disability support pension
nor the age pension has been increased – except for a relatively small lump
sum payment. The AIHW data shows that last year, 31 and 33 per cent of
people receiving those payments were in rental stress.
For both disabled and aged pensioners, the rates jumped sharply if they
were not eligible for rent assistance – to 72 and 65 per cent, respectively.