The needy miss out on Santa Kevin’s package
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Giving cash to those who have fewest resources usually does ensure it is spent. Doing so just before Xmas should be a guarantee of spending but Santa Kevin managed to miss out some of the most needy and give unnecessary money to some people one could call a tetch greedy. The payments leave out those categories of income support recipients who are most in need of extra money. A single Newstart recipient gets only $219 a week, well below the widely excoriated figure of $273 for single pensioners. And some independent Youth Allowance recipients on less than $175 pw will also miss out. Sole parents may also lose as they will get a payment per child but not for themselves, so those with one child end up with $400 dollars less than a single pensioner. It seems as though the politically unpopular income recipients get less than justice, although most in need. At the other end, however, there are generous payments to a noisy but not needy lot, the so-called self funded retirees who receive the Commonwealth seniors heath card. There are 320,000 Senior Health Care Card holders who are eligible for the bonus of $1,400 single or $2,100 a couple. Singles, for examples may earn between $40,500 and $49,999 pa, or have equivalent capital funds, about four times the income of single unemployed people on less than $11,500 pa. Why be so generous with these relatively well off groups? Is this another Howard type down payment on future voters? Many of these have had quite generous tax concessions, so self funding is not always an accurate description, and even if they lose some capital in the market failures, they can get picked up by the pension system at relatively generous levels. For instance, many aged pensioner couples on not much less than $2,600 per fortnight super income, paying concessional tax or none, who will also be paid the $2,100 bonus, as will equivalent singles on $1,555 two week incomes. And the payment is also all tax free! All these affluent groups may not spend their payment at all, and therefore fail to do their public duty to increase demand. These payment anomalies should give all those getting the payments in higher income brackets, a brief moment of reflection on whether they should donate it to someone on unemployment benefit, or youth allowance, as charity would seem to be the only option for the less popular poor. And that’s not very likely because they lack public appeal! |
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8 Comments
I’m a Melbourne student on Youth Allowance. I get about about $180 a week after tax. My rent is $165 a week for a two bedroom slum opposite the commission flats. If I earn more than $120 a week at work, my YA is reduced by fifty cents for each extra dollar earned. So I do what every student has to do; I lie to Centrelink about how much I earn and hope that I don’t get caught. Work takes up twenty hours a week, study takes up about thirty hours (if I can find the time), so anyone that thinks I’m a bludger, go f**k yourself. Oh, and I’ll walk away with a $20 000 Hecs debt for an Arts degree which doesn’t exactly promise a big salary at the end of it all. But I guess pensioners are more deserving than future taxpayers!
I’m interested to know what Eva’s personal interest is in the topic and her credentials.Her somewhat broad unhappy article is more of a critical comment on the Government rather than concern for those she would presume to be concerned for.
Kerry: you win ’ dumbarse ’ comment of the week. Google Eva’s name & you’ll see she’s been a champion of the disenfranchised of Australia for decades. Unfortunately, there’s only one Eva Cox but countless dimwits like you.
For the record, in my experience that Crikey Commentator Cowards ( i.e. those who refuse to associate their bilious commentary with their true identity) make the most asinine comments.
For mine, if you won’t supply your true identity with your aggressive comments, you’re simply a coward.
In the meantime Eva, you’re right about the political nature of the payments……a sad but true reality of modern politics.
Kerry, why be interested in the author’s credentials? It’s an obvious question that needs asking, and answering. Suggesting personal interest is faintly ad hominem.
“Bludger”, I sympathise, but you really ought not have gone for the arts degree. Go science every time. Be that as it may, you’re not bludging if you’re working and studying.
Yes - the lack of thought and real analysis is clear with this “Santa” hand-out. Wayne has waved his 35c pen without anymore than a snap thought and utter gay abandon, disposing of a huge slab of the hard-won budget surplus - which had little to do with Swan’s expertise - in a manner which will do little for the Country as we struggle through this US-led crisis.
Completing my 8th year of tertiary education I’ve recieved Newstart for 6 years and 4 years I have had time to work during my semester breaks only. At the very end of a health sciences degree I am pleased to have had an income enabling me to achieve.
Income : $978/m Rent : $650/m Gas/Electricity/Water : $70/m Remainder $64/w
in return for these inputs I get out Classroom Hours : 96/m Clinic hours : 72/m
At 27 I ought to be able to handle 42 hours weekly of onsite learning plus a few hours of paid work ought’nt I? Well I’ll tell you, I’m bloody broken, caught between the demands of the market, education and life.
So I am struggling to feed myself on less than $10 a day. Much less actually as my daily pittance gets raided for train tickets, coffee, etc. And I think to myself of friends who left school at 17 to enter the work force…
Another ‘bludger’ here. Someone please explain to me why an independent Youth Allowance recipient receives so much less than someone on Newstart when we have to buy books, stationery etc. and (if we have any sense of decency) pay for Student Union fees etc.
This isn’t just a whinge - I would be very interested to know the reasons behind this discrepancy. Please tell me it’s more than ‘because they can’.
As one who receives the seniors bonus payment I fully agree with Eva Cox. I regarded the original $500 bonus payment by the Howard government as a blatant bribe which I refused to accept and donated my payment to charity….similarly with following payments.
I think it is ridiculous that these payments are made to those who are not in real need, while there are many people who would really benefit from this payment. Equally, I think it wrong that the other payments by the government i.e. baby bonus, pension bonus etc are paid in a lump sum and not as a regular fortnightly payment. I agree with your referral to tham as the ‘plasm and pokies bonus’ This may apply to a small proportion of the recipients, but there is no doubt it happens. Similarly, the young girls who are deliberately getting pregnant so as the boyfriend can buy a new motor bike or whatever.