New modelling has shown an estimated 155,000 people in Australia are facing poverty as a coronavirus supplement to the JobSeeker payment ends.
The current welfare payment for unemployed Australians will be reduced from 1 April when the $150 per fortnight coronavirus supplement expires.
At the same time, the government will raise the base rate of JobSeeker by $50 per fortnight permanent - meaning recipients of the payment will see a $100 drop in their earnings.
New modelling released by progressive think-tank the Australia Institute predicts the change will result in 155,000 people - including 18,000 children - moving into poverty.
“This one policy measure shows that whether to leave Australians to live in poverty is a government choice,” Australia Institute economist Matt Grudnoff said.
The coronavirus supplement to the JobSeeker payment has been progressively scaled back since coming into full effect in April 2020.
It was reduced to $250 per fortnight in September and $150 in January.
The Australia Institute's modelling claims that there are approximately 580,000 more people living in poverty currently, compared with before the pandemic.
“The Government has a choice. It can sentence more than a million Australians to living in poverty, including hundreds of thousands of children,” Mr Grudnoff said.
"Or it can make the same choice they made last year and show that Australia is a compassionate country and spare these people that fate.”
The modelling uses the Henderson poverty line, a standard measure that estimates a single person is living in poverty if they have less than $561 per week to live on.
Under the current JobSeeker payment, a single person would from 1 April receive $620.80 per fortnight.
Social Services Minister Anne Ruston disagreed that changes to the rate of JobSeeker would result in more people going below the poverty line.
“We need to be very careful about making a judgement in relation to poverty,” she told ABC Radio this week.
Senator Ruston said there are many other government supports in place in addition to JobSeeker.
"We don't want people to be on unemployment benefits," she said.
“One thing that we can't underestimate here is that this will be a business-led recovery.”
Australian National University associate professor Ben Phillips said while there is no agreed poverty line in Australia – the evidence suggests JobSeeker payments were failing to meet any of them.
"There’s still a pretty good line in the sand in terms of who's got roughly enough money to scrape by and who doesn’t,” he said.
“I think on any of those measures … it’s quite clear that amount is well short of what most would consider to be an acceptable living standard or safety net.”
