In May 2020, the Raise The Rate campaign surveyed 955 people on JobSeeker Payment, Youth Allowance, Parenting Payment, and Austudy, who are receiving the Coronavirus Supplement.
This survey explores how the new rate of JobSeeker and other allowances has affected people’s ability to cover essential costs like housing, bills, food, medicine, and other vital expenses. The survey also explores how people feel about the Government’s plan to return income support payments to the old rates in late September.
The survey found that people were reporting dramatically reduced levels of financial and personal
distress since the introduction of the new JobSeeker rate, with significant declines in the number of people skipping meals, as well as people reporting they could not afford fresh fruit and vegetables, medicines, bills and rent, and other essential expenses.
This first real increase to allowances has had an extraordinary effect on people’s lives, which cannot be overstated.