The choice between rent and food - a new Anglicare report calls for increase in Centrelink payments

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Families on Centrelink payments are barely getting by, with many choosing between paying rent and buying food or medication. Some 800,000 of those living below the poverty line are children.

Saba Al-Khamisi is a recipient of JobSeeker, the government's fortnightly payment for people unemployed and looking for work."Rent is $550 a week. I receive $600 in two weeks. How am I supposed to make this work? How am I supposed to live my day? Will I have to give up my medication? Will I have to give up food?"

"My mental health condition has worsened. I became angry. I was stressed 24 hours a day because I keep thinking, what do I do? What do I do? What do I do to live?"The annual Cost of Living report found that after paying rent, transport and food a single person on the Parenting Payment has just 3 dollars left a day.And a person under 35 living alone on the same rate is out of pocket 135 dollars each week.

"We only looked at basic weekly costs. We didn't include utilities, so power bills. We didn't include telecommunications and data, we didn't include medications, we didn't look at those quarterly bills or those annual bills like insurance. So heaven forbid if anything goes wrong, or if someone has an emergency, or - goodness me - people want to have a small luxury like putting their child to a school excursion or a small birthday present.

"In every single budget you work out the best, most responsible way to help people. We understand people are under pressure. That's why there is such substantial cost of living relief delivered in more than one way."

 

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