Welfare Reform Consultation: NCSMC lodged our submission 8th July 2014 Extract below: Opening statement: The current system is complex with additional supplements and once off payments. However, complexity in itself is not a green light to reduce payments. Once off payments, supplements and allowances have become a substitute for a recognised inadequacy within the current support system and to reduce them without responding to the inadequacy would produce harm. For example to ease the cost pressures for education, a school kids bonus was instituted, an unwillingness to increase Newstart, while noting its inadequacy resulted in an income support bonus. Furthermore, those once off payments provide capacity to meet costs that are too large for the weekly budget such as replacement of a household item, car registration and school fees. Struggling families cobbled together every allowance, supplement and payment. They do this because the current support system does not provide the means to access the ‘basics’. Recommendation: 1. An income support system needs a universal payment that quarantines Australians and in particular Australian children from poverty. We note that poverty is the greatest impairment to participation and a future predictor of a child’s health and well-being. 2. A universal payment with additional but targeted supplements such as a supplement for sole parents, for people who have additional expenses associated with their disability and for those who have no work capacity. 3. An incremental step would commence with those who receive a ‘single’ payment. We note that the scale of economy makes ‘singles’ more financially vulnerable as witnessed in the findings of the Harmer review
Posted on: Fri, 15 Aug 2014 05:44:29 +0000
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