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The COVID-19 pandemic has been a social and economic disaster of almost unprecedented proportions in recent history. But, for one group of people, last year’s silver linings outshone the hardships.
“When we had the coronavirus supplement, I was able to pay my rent, I could pay my bills on time, I got to pay off debts that I’d had for years, I was able to buy food and clothes,” says current Austudy recipient Teddy White, who was on JobSeeker for most of last year.
White says he was able to buy new winter clothes, pyjamas and bedding for the first time in years.
Without the anxiety of living hand to mouth, he found the headspace to consider his future, escape from a treadmill of unsuitable jobs that exacerbated his health problems, and enrol in university.
Wendy Morgan also had a very positive 2020.
“Last year was fantastic because I didn’t have to make do without electricity at all last year,” says the long-term JobSeeker recipient.
She lost her last stable employment in 2012 and has since experienced evictions, homelessness and being repeatedly cut off from essential utilities.
But keeping the lights on is not the only reason why Morgan can now see her crochet properly.
My lenses alone were over $750 and I just couldn’t afford that on the Newstart payment, and I’d been from 2012 until last year without any new glasses,” she explains.
But the coronavirus supplement that started at $275 a week and ended in March at $75 has been replaced by a permanent increase in JobSeeker of just $25 a week, leaving income support recipients feeling like they’re back where they started the pandemic.
Morgan is once again behind on her electricity payments as she juggles bills.
“After paying my rent, I get just over $400 a fortnight left over and out of that I’ve got to pay electricity and phone, internet is essential – you can’t look for a job without the internet these days, so I need to have a laptop,” she explains.
She also needed to replace her laptop and phone when they were stolen in a break-in a couple of months ago, something she struggled to afford on the regular JobSeeker rate.
But while she lives in a rough neighbourhood, Morgan is lucky to live in relatively low-rent Adelaide. Since the supplements ended, White’s situation in Melbourne is even more desperate.
“I get $580 a fortnight from Centrelink and $520 of that has to go towards my rent each fortnight, which leaves me with $60 to cover literally every other living expense. So food, meds, clothes, transport, everything.”
Sixty dollars a fortnight simply cannot cover all of White’s essentials.
“I can’t buy phone credit, I can’t pay my internet bill, I can’t buy money to put on my Myki [travel card],” he laments.
“There’s just no way to stretch it to cover everything.”
