#NotALifeline: what the $50 a week cut to income support means
AUWU members share their budget cuts with the prime minister
On 10 November Scott Morrison announced a $50 cut to income support payments, which were raised in April 2020 to about $1,100 for a single person on JobSeeker – for the first time in decades unemployed people were able to live on the poverty line. The AUWU has gathered stories and data from our members (see below) about how the latest cut will affect their budget.
From 1 January these payments will be cut again, down to about $350 per week, before returning to the previous rate of $275 per week on 1 April 2021. This was described as a ‘lifeline’ for unemployed people. It's obscene to say this. It’s #NotALifeline. It's just more punishment from a government whose favourite pastime seems to be to hurt unemployed people.
The prime minister must be forced to confront the reality of what these cuts mean for us.
Tell us what changes you will need make to your budget. We're gathering this information and your stories to share with the prime minister and on this page (we won't identify you if you don’t want us to). Use this document to tell us how the cut will affect you and we’ll make you a #NotALifeline graphic to send to politicians and share on social media.
What the payment cut means for us
Send your story to media@auwu.org.au and we will add it below.
JB’s budget cuts: “There’s not a lot we can change in our budget. We have no kids, no car. We already cut a few things at the beginning of the year. We’ll probably have mounting bills again.”
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SO’s budget cuts: “I will again be seeing charities to assist with paying bills.”
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JD’s budget cuts: With these cuts I'll have to work an extra 8 hours a week to maintain my current income. A day might not sound like much but time to study is extremely valuable, and I already spend a lot of my free time preparing food in order to maintain a healthy diet on a low budget. I don't really have an option to cut my budget any more than it already has been – I eat as cheap as possible, I rely on a bike to get around and I'm living with two other people to spread the cost of household bills. Moving somewhere with cheaper rent would be my only option, but I've just signed a new lease last week and I'm already a 50 minute bike ride from my uni campus. I was trying to put aside money to cover my bills during my final semester as my eligibility for Austudy expires halfway through next year. Now I don't really have the spare money to do that and I'm going to be struggling to get by during the busiest and most stressful part of my degree.
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EN’s budget cuts: “I will have to cut back on healtheir food and live on crap like two minute noodles again, cut back on petrol, exercising at the pool. I won't be able to afford clothing apart from the op shop. It's just devastating all around. The weirdest thing about it is it's all less money that I will spend at businesses, the very thing he claims to want to support.”
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AA’s budget cuts
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Mrs L Trinick’s budget cuts: “I am among 200,000 Australians who can’t get the DSP even though I’m medically certified unfit to work. I am 58 – considered too old to work and too young to receive Aged Pension. Budgeting is simple when Centrelink payments are below the poverty line. The amount of $275 only covers the roof over my head (soon to be repossessed). The government expects I can live on fresh air! Many Australians are suffering.”
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