Poverty tipped to soar if jobless subsidies are cut

THE number of residents who need financial and social services help during the pandemic is set to rise significantly when JobKeeper and JobSeeker reduce from September, according to a services provider and advocacy group in Cairns.

Centacare’s FNQ executive director Anita Veivers said the crisis “is and will continue to have a significant impact on the Far North, with unemployment being one of the key impacts”.

“Cairns was one of the 10 worst-affected regions nationally in the first month of the lockdown,” she said.

Ms Veivers said with JobSeeker set to end in September, it would lead to “a confident prediction of these numbers further increasing”.

Her comments come after the Australian Institute published an economic model that shows more than 650,000

Australians, including 120,000 children, would live in poverty if the JobSeeker coronavirus supplement ended.

Between January and April this year, the Department of Social Services showed that those in the Far North receiving unemployment benefits increased from 8915 to 23,100.

Ms Veivers said losing employment “doesn’t only give a financial hit — emotionally it can be confronting. People’s identity and often a significant number of relationships and history are interwoven with employment,” she said.

“Speaking to someone is important, whether informally through a friend, partner or relative or formally through a counsellor.

“Understanding your situation and the implications are crucial, as is acting early. Talking to your bank and other lenders before a problem arises is the best way to fend off bigger problems down the track.”

Following the Federal Government’s decision to reduce JobSeeker and JobKeeper payments, the Cairns Anti-Poverty Network urged it to reverse its “punitive” decision to avoid compounding the already dire situation with the unemployment rate in FNQ.

Network co-ordinator Tracey Radford said the decision was “draconian” and the reduced JobSeeker payment meant that those relying on it would fall under the poverty line. “What I would like to see is the rate of JobKeeper and JobSeeker set at a permanent current rate,” she said.

“We are seeing record high unemployment and this is leading to systemic poverty.

“People are having mental health issues. They’re not able to then go out to successfully apply for jobs, unsure of where their future’s going to go.

“We support JobKeeper going indefinitely until the vaccine has been found.”