Inadequate welfare payments leave almost two million Australians trapped in poverty

Inflationary government spending is missing the Aussies who need it most and driving up interest rates for everyone else. Record government spending that has turbocharged inflation and forced the RBA to raise rates may not be filtering into the communities that need it most, with new data showing three in four households reliant on JobSeeker are living in poverty. The joint research from Australian Council of Social Service (ACOSS) and UNSW found that this included one in five older singles and one in six children within income support households. MORE: 4 in 5 Aussies now back extreme rent reform ACOSS chief executive officer Cassandra Goldie said almost 2 million Aussies are destitute. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman MORE: Alarming truth about kids growing up in rentals There were 757,000 kids under-15 living in poverty and children in sole parent households were almost three times more likely to be impoverished than those in coupled households. ACOSS chief executive officer Cassandra Goldie said that government payments are so low, they’re pushing 1.9 million people into poverty across all kinds of support. “Almost two million people relying on government support are being push...