from The Herald Sun... A LEADING charity has blasted the Coalition for its plan to axe a battlers bonus for around one million people worth up to $350 a year. Opposition Leader Tony Abbott has confirmed he will dump the supplementary allowance paid to 500,000 unemployed people on the Newstart allowance, 260,000 receiving youth allowance and 230,000 getting the parenting payment. Mr Abbott said the payment, worth $210 a year for singles and $350 for couples, was being abolished because it was supposed to be funded from the mining tax but the controversial tax was not raising enough money to pay for it. He insisted people would be better off overall from his plan to abolish the carbon tax. The Coalition estimated removing the allowance would save $1 billion over four years and said it was one of the tough decisions needed to fix the Budget. The payment, worth between $4 and $6.70 a week, was introduced by Labor in response to calls from business and welfare groups to increase the Newstart allowance by $50 a week. St Vincent de Paul Society national council chief executive Dr John Falzon said the Oppositions decision would hurt the poor. The Coalition is to be condemned for taking away from those who have nothing in the first place, Dr Falzon said. The Newstart allowance is desperately in need of a $50-a-week increase. People are so far behind the eight-ball, the level of Newstart has become an obstacle to workforce participation. The $4-a-week increase isnt anywhere near enough and it beggars belief the Opposition should take away this paltry amount from people absolutely waging a daily battle for survival from below the poverty line. He called on Labor and the Coalition to increase Newstart by $50 a week as a matter of decency. Australian Council of Social Service senior adviser Peter Davidson said it would be a shame if one of the first acts of an Abbott government was to cut benefits for unemployed people. This $4 is the first real increase that unemployed people have received for 20 years. This would take the living standards of unemployed people back to 1994, he said. The areas in Victoria that are likely to be hardest hit include Clayton, Carlton, Frankston North, Geelong, Doveton, Gippsland, Morwell, Parkville, Sunshine and Ballarat. However, if the Coalition wins the September 7 election, it may not have time to stop the next payment, which is due September 20. Mr Abbott said his focus was on getting people off unemployment as he pushed bonus payments of up to $6500 he would pay those who had been out of work for 12 months or more who can find and hold down a job for two years. I see these measures not as a handout but as a hand-up because they are about empowering people to find and secure and keep the work that they need and want, he said.
Posted on: Sat, 01 Feb 2014 12:24:20 +0000
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