BATTERED women, the mentally ill and the homeless are being turned away from charities in greater numbers and Australias skyrocketing house prices are exacerbating the problem. The Australian Council of Social Service (ACOSS) has surveyed 500 agencies providing support to the country’s most vulnerable and found potentially thousands more people are being turned away than in previous years. Housing and homeless services were nominated in the report as those struggling the most to meet demands. ACOSS deputy chief executive Tessa Boyd-Caine said the most concerning finding was the five per cent increase in people being turned away. “So five per cent is a reasonably small percentage but we’re talking about a large number of people,” Dr Boyd-Caine said. That translated to people with no choice but to stay in violent households, miss out on vital medicine and more people losing the roof over their heads because of spiralling bills. Legal, youth welfare, housing and homelessness and domestic violence services continued to turn away clients at the highest rates, according to the annual review of the sector. But she said that turn-away number was masked by agencies who were tightening their rules around who they could help and how often. That meant many more people than those turned away needed help, but didn’t qualify. She said up to 80 per cent of people who asked for help were wholly reliant on income support payments, and those “abysmally low” amounts had to increase. Skyrocketing rents were pricing people out of their own homes and meant they were struggling to pay electricity, food and school bills, Dr Boyd-Caine said. “For instance, in Sydney and Melbourne, they median price in terms of rental exceeds the amount of money they receive per week, so they are simply priced out of the market,” she said. The ACOSS report is the largestsurvey of Australia’s community services sector. news.au/national-news/welfare-groups-cant-meet-demand-australian-council-of-social-services-report-says/story-fncynjr2-1226672288527
Posted on: Tue, 06 Aug 2013 01:05:06 +0000
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