Short-changed: The ongoing costs of an inadequate JobSeeker Payment
Between March and June 2022, 90 people who were clients of financial counsellors shared their stories about trying to live on the JobSeeker Payment.
They also provided information about their weekly income and expenditure showing that it is simply impossible for many people to make ends meet on the current rate.
The costs resulting from this impossibility are borne directly by the most vulnerable in our community, facing destitution, declining health, homelessness and hunger, and also carried by overstretched emergency relief services, and by our service systems including justice, health and mental health.