We welcomed the government’s quick response when COVID hit, providing a supplement of $550 per fortnight for people receiving income support. This has made a huge difference, allowing people to put food on the table and a roof over their head.

Recent announcements on 23 July confirm this supplement will be cut by $300 a fortnight from September (reducing the supplement to $250 per fortnight) and scheduled to end on 31 December, leaving millions of people uncertain about their future.

We continue to advocate for a permanent and adequate increase to unemployment and other income support payments.  The government cannot turn its back on people without paid work. With one job available for every 13 people receiving JobSeeker the government must show that it has people’s backs and deliver a permanent fix.  Further funding from the philanthropic sector has been hugely valuable.

Our recent extra contribution will support economic modelling by Deloitte Access Economics to assess the economic impact of cutting the Coronavirus Supplement, and what this will mean for people across the country. It will assess the effect of the payment reduction from September, as well as if payments were reverted to $40 a day. Importantly, it will provide a breakdown of these impacts by local government area, which will help the campaign to convince parliament that we must Raise the Rate For Good.

The Snow Foundation has been supporting the Raise the Rate campaign since 2018 and is in partnership with nine philanthropists, to build and maintain the campaign – the Wyatt Trust (group lead), The Myer Foundation, Fay Fuller Foundation, Australian Communities Foundation, Lord Mayor’s Charitable Foundation, Broadley Trust, The Ross Trust, and Maple-Brown Family Foundation.
As a group, as well as individually, we made a submission to the Senate inquiry outlining why we support the increase.