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People on unemployment benefits will receive an extra $25 per week under changes to JobSeeker from April, but will receive less money overall due to the end of the coronavirus supplement.
Key points:
- A plan to increase JobSeeker has been announced by the Prime Minister
- The plan increases the payment by $25 per week but coincides with the end of the coronavirus supplement, leaving recipients worse off
- Recipients will be required to do more to qualify for payments, like attending face-to-face appointments
And the government will require more from recipients, including more job searches per month and face-to-face appointments with employment services.
The boost will take the JobSeeker allowance to $307 per week, and will cost an estimated $9 billion over the forward estimates.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison described the increase as "appropriate" as Australia recovers from the pandemic and returns to a "more normal" environment.
"We are now moving… back to a normal safety net arrangement as part of that normalising process, but we're ensuring that it is set at a base we believe is appropriate going forward," he said.
He said the payment was now at 41 per cent of minimum wage, the same level as during the Howard government.
The JobSeeker payment has been falling further behind relative poverty lines for the past two decades, including rapidly during a period under prime ministers John Howard and Kevin Rudd.
The government temporarily increased the dole during the COVID-19 crisis, but that supplement is due to end in a month's time.
Labor, the Greens and a broad coalition of business and welfare groups have long been calling for a permanent boost, arguing the dole has not increased in real terms in more than 20 years.
Social Services Minister Anne Ruston said the increase was about getting the balance right.
In addition to the payment increase, the plan includes a rise in the threshold before benefits start to taper off.
That means recipients will be able to earn more before their payments are decreased.
However, recipients will now face additional "mutual obligations", including additional job searches, face-to-face appointments with employment services, intensive training after six months on welfare and more paperwork for some recipients.
Employment Minister Michaelia Cash said the government would "do everything" to move people from welfare into work.
"This is all about acknowledging that, if I am receiving welfare, I have obligations to do everything I can to get into a job," she said.
"But this is also the government's commitment to all Australians."
She also announced employers would now be able to "report" recipients who turn down work.
The changes will have to pass parliament before they are implemented.
Supplement to end
The increase in JobSeeker follows the removal of the coronavirus supplement — a top-up payment for more than a million welfare recipients.
That decreased from $125 per week to $75 per week on January 1 and it will disappear entirely on March 31.
It was as high as $275 per week between April and September.
On Tuesday morning, Labor leader Anthony Albanese said the current rate — before the mooted increase — was not enough to live on.
"It's important there be a permanent increase, and that that be done as a matter of urgency to provide certainty to people," he said.
He declined to name the size of increase that Labor would support, saying only that he would respond to the government's announcement.
"We don't have a chance to change the figure today, or next week, or next month," he said.
"What we have to do is consider what our approach would be as an alternative government."
Greens senator Rachel Siewert said $25 a week was not enough.
"It's a complete and utter joke. it makes a mockery of the government saying that they care about those that are doing it tough in this country."
Australian Council of Social Service chief executive Cassandra Goldie said the increase represented a cut after factoring in the removal of the coronavirus supplement, and it would represent a "devastating decision".
"People have tried to explain to the government the reality of their lives, out there to try and keep a roof over your head, keep yourself fed," she said.
"The last thing we need is for the government to turn its back on people at such a crucial stage."
Chris Richardson from Deloitte Access Economics also agreed the increase needed to be larger.
"I am very proud that Australia, after a quarter of a century on both sides of government over that time, [is] finally doing something about our biggest fail as a nation, particularly during a pandemic.
"But it's not enough."