More relief is rolling out to more people from today, including the first back‑to‑back increase to Commonwealth Rent Assistance in more than 30 years and indexation of pensions and payments opposed by the Liberals and Nationals.
We recognise that people are under the pump and we're doing something about it.
We're already rolling out tax cuts and energy rebates and from today we'll give people more help to pay the rent and deliver an increase to pensions and payments including the age pension.
This means more help for more Australians who need it most right around the country.
The Coalition have made it very clear they don't think the Age Pension and other payments should have been indexed to keep up with inflation and would cut this vital cost‑of‑living support if given the chance.
The Liberals couldn't care less about renters, pensioners or people on income support payments but Labor does and that's why we're providing more relief.
Cost‑of‑living relief rolling out from today:
- We're delivering the first back‑to‑back increase to Commonwealth Rent Assistance in more than 30 years. We're increasing Rent Assistance by a further 10 per cent plus indexation which will benefit nearly a million households around the country.
Combined with indexation, maximum rates of Rent Assistance are up 45 per cent since we came to office.
- We're also delivering the latest round of payment indexation including for the Age Pension, Disability Support Pension, JobSeeker, Carer Payment and Parenting Payment, set to benefit more than five million Australians.
As of July, more than 91,000 single parents - mainly women - are benefiting from the Government's 2023 changes to expand eligibility for Parenting Payment Single to parents until their youngest child turns 14.
- JobSeeker recipients with an assessed partial capacity to work of less than 15 hours per week will move to the higher rate of JobSeeker, receiving an increase of $71.20 a fortnight combined with indexation.
From today the base rate of JobSeeker for a single person will have increased by $135 per fortnight. This is an increase of 21.1 per cent since Labor was elected. This is the largest ever nominal increase to unemployment benefits over a comparable period;
- Income limits for the Commonwealth Seniors Health Card will also increase to $99,025 for singles and $158,440 for couples (combined).
Since Labor significantly increased thresholds for card eligibility in November 2022, an additional 32,000 older Australians have accessed the card, providing access to cheaper medicines and subsidised GP visits.
This support is on top of the responsible relief that has been rolling out to millions of Australians to help ease the cost of living since July.
Other cost‑of‑living relief rolling out now and set to roll out in the future includes:
- Tax cuts for every taxpayer.
- Increased wages for aged care and early childhood education and care workers.
- Energy rebates for every household and a million small businesses.
- We're making medicines cheaper through 60 day dispensing of almost 300 medicines.
- A freeze on the maximum price of Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme copayments for one year for everyone with a Medicare card, and a five year freeze for pensioners and concession card holders.
- $18.6 million to remove barriers to employment for Carer Payment recipients by providing more flexibility around work commitments.
- Waiving $3 billion in student debt for more than three million Australians to make student loans fairer.
- $138 million to boost funding for emergency and food relief and financial support services.
Our 15 per cent increase to Commonwealth Rent Assistance starting last year has been taking some of the edge off rents but they're still too high and that's why more help is on the way from today.
The primary focus of the Albanese Government is to ease the cost of living for Australians at the same time as we fight inflation in our economy.
This stands in stark contrast to the Greens and Liberal and National Coalition who this week opposed our Help to Buy scheme which would have provided 40,000 more social and affordable homes for those needing assistance getting into the housing market.
The Coalition has nothing positive to offer and when last in government, they presided over a decade of cuts and wasted opportunity. On their watch, they cut family payments and they cut pensions - and they have said they want to slash so called "unrestrained spending" if elected again, which could include indexation.
We know there's more to do in the fight against inflation and people are doing it tough, and that's why we're rolling out responsible cost‑of‑living relief while turning big Liberal deficits into Labor surpluses.
We're doing our bit in the Budget to fight inflation and ease pressure on Australians, including through cost‑of‑living relief and our responsible economic management.
The complete list of payments increasing today, including income and asset limits, can be found on the Department of Social Services website.
