More than 100,000 students are trying to live on $26 a day. How is this the norm in Australia?
Unless you are privileged, getting a university degree is becoming harder and harder. With indexation on HecsHelp debts increasing amid a cost-ofliving crisis, rising rents and an increase in casualised and below minimum wage jobs, students are suffering.
Last week the National Union of Students released our report Locked Out of Youth Allowance: Student Poverty & Centrelink in Australia. Drawing from surveys, interviews, polling and economic modelling, the report highlights the vivid intersectionality between being young and being poor.
We have been hearing for years about students who are struggling, students coming to our doors in tears because they have nowhere to sleep. We now have the numbers that show just how grim the world is for many students.
The age of independence, according to Services Australia, is now 22. This means your ability to claim student welfare including youth allowance is means tested on your parent’s income until you turn 22, unless there are exceptional circumstances. One student told the union: “If the age of independence had been lower, I would have been able to get away from my abusive parents at a younger age.”
Eight per cent of students who are unable to access youth allowance said it worsened their experience of family violence and kept them living in an unsafe environment. “The scariest part of it was that I needed verification from my parents that it was unreasonable to live at home,” 23-year-old Darcy said. The system requires many young people to rely on their abusers signing their ticket to safety. What a horrific notion.
Services Australia doesn’t help this situation either. It demands police reports, psychologists’ reports and statements from parents – things which are often inaccessible in a time of need.
A well-funded and accessible social security policy can change lives. Darcy explained how receiving the Covid supplement was the first time in their life they had experienced financial stability: “It’s actually this easy to not suffer.” The supplement highlighted that this suffering is not necessary: and that student poverty is a consequence of government policy.
It would cost the budget approximately $5.3bn to lower the age of independence to 18. This would allow 450,000 students to be lifted out of poverty and increase their standard of living. How can we possibly expect young people to be happy, healthy and thriving at university if they are living significantly below the poverty line?
University education is returning to a place where only the privileged few who have pre-existing support are able to attend. This is especially true for students moving out to study. During orientation weeks this year, we travelled around the country talking to students about their issues. It was tragic to hear how many students were suffering due to the illogical and bureaucratic rules surrounding youth allowance. We now know that more than half of students who live out of home to study aren’t able to access youth allowance. Additionally, 110,000 students are attempting to live on a mere $26 a day. One in seven students are regularly skipping meals because of financial hardship. A student we talked to remarked that they dumpster dived a lot to survive.
How is this the norm in Australia? We don’t understand how the Albanese government is willing to give out stage-three tax cuts that will predominantly benefit wealthy Australian homeowners, yet unwilling to take a position on whether it will end student poverty by providing an essential safety net for young renters.
Polling undertaken for NUS found that 58% of people support the government lowering the age of independence from 22 to 18, so full-time students can access Centrelink support while they study. Meanwhile, Labor is persisting with stage-three tax cuts – which could easily go towards ending student poverty – despite only 22% of people in support of them. It’s a no-brainer that the government should give support to those in poverty rather than those already on comfortable salaries.
The Albanese Government has the power to end student poverty in the next budget by lowering Centrelink’s age of independence from 22 to 18, lifting social security payments to above the poverty line (at least $88 a day), adjusting Centrelink payments twice a year with the cost of living, and updating rent assistance payments in line with market rents.
The ball is in your court, Albo.
Georgie Beatty is the president of the National Union of Students and Billy Zimmermann is the NUS welfare officer