Today is the quarterly adjustment of Centrelink payments – you might have seen it referred to in other media as a “cash boost”, but in reality it’s the miniscule indexation of payments to account for inflation. Rent Assistance is now $106 per week (an extra 40c) and JobSeeker $394.95 per week (an extra $1.55)… yeah, really.
But it doesn’t have to be like this.
Today also marks the fifth anniversary of the COVID Supplementary payments. Five years ago, almost to the day, Scott Morrison announced those on JobSeeker would get an extra $275 per week to get them through the pandemic, a decision that brought nearly 1 million people out of poverty and certainly saved lives. Unfortunately, the support was only temporary, with the additional payments ending in 2021. Avery Howard was a recipient of the COVID Supplement, and is now the Vice President of the Australian Unemployed Workers Union – they’re sharing how the increased payments transformed their life, and what the government could do now if it’s serious about supporting people experiencing poverty.
Five years ago, the federal government made a decision that would change my life. Scott Morrison announced they would be introducing the Coronavirus Supplement, a $550 per fortnight payment that acknowledged to the hundreds of thousands of people on income support payments that the base payments of JobSeeker and Youth Allowance were not enough to survive on.
In 2020, I had already been struggling to survive on Youth Allowance for three years. At the age of 15 I became homeless, moving from one form of temporary accommodation to another, with barely any time to study or look for work while trying to find somewhere to live. Making ends meet was hard; I’d spend hours in the supermarket with a calculator, working my way down the aisles to make sure I wasn’t going over my meagre grocery budget. I relied on charities and food banks for the bulk of my food, but even then, it wasn’t enough.
I was studying a bridging course at TAFE, hoping to get into university and study to become a teacher. But studying whilst solely relying on Youth Allowance was difficult. I had to ration my public transport usage to a few days a week because I couldn’t afford to travel to all of my classes. My grades were severely impacted by my non-attendance, and regardless of how hard I tried I just wasn’t able to improve.
I was also looking for many jobs as well — retail, fast food, hospitality, call centres, anything considered ‘entry level’. When I was lucky enough to get a job interview, I had to choose when I’d be able to miss classes just so I could go. The only clothes I had were cheap and casual, which didn’t make me look professional.
Luckily, in February 2020 I had found casual employment in events with a local council. When I was hired, I was told I’d be getting a lot of shifts over the coming weeks, as it was National Youth Week. One week later, we went into lockdown and all events were cancelled.
The Supplement was announced, and implemented about a month later. Immediately after receiving the payment, the stress of needing to obsessively keep track of my money was gone. I wasn’t spending recklessly, but I didn’t need to be as meticulous has I had been in the past.
It was the first time in my life I wasn’t living in poverty. I was able to pay for all of my essentials without having to move money around or delay paying bills. I was able to save — while it wasn’t much, for someone who had never been able to save at all, it was a lifeline. Once I had a small amount of savings, I was able to get my Responsible Service of Alcohol and Responsible Conduct of Gaming certificates to help me find a job.
Alongside the Supplement payments, the government had also announced that it was temporarily suspending mutual obligations. This meant I didn’t have to stress about going to box-ticking appointments, which freed up some time to volunteer.
The first bit of worry crept back in July, when Scott Morrison announced the government was cutting the Supplement by more than half later that year. The relative safety I’d felt with it had gone, replaced with concern for how I’d pay my bills when it stopped. By April 2021 the Supplement was gone, replaced with a base rate ‘increase’ of $50 per fortnight — less than a tenth of the original amount. Making matters worse was the substantial rise in the cost of living. The savings I had built up slowly over the year with the Supplement soon vanished.
Since the end of the Supplement, a lot has changed.
In late 2021 I was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes, and my ongoing medical costs have increased a considerable amount. I have also been able to find regular work, and I am currently a casual sales associate in a retail store near home. I still rely on JobSeeker to supplement my income as my hours fluctuate; it helps as the cost of living has dramatically increased over the years as well. Budgeting has been an essential tool to try and keep on top of my money, but sometimes it isn’t enough. I have had to rely on ‘buy now, pay later’ schemes for essentials I couldn’t afford in the moment — and even grocery shops from time to time.
Society tells us that people who live in poverty deserve it, and it’s because of something they’ve done wrong. My experience has taught me is this is a systemic issue — one that can be reversed with the click of a button, if the government wanted to.
The government could raise the rate of all Centrelink payments above the poverty line and abolish “mutual” obligations. They could do it overnight, and substantially improve the material conditions of millions of Australians — they did it before. Five years later, they have just chosen not to.
Going into the last election, the Labor government campaigned on a promise of “nobody left behind”. This election, let’s hold them to that promise.
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