RESIDENTS who receive government income support will receive a much-needed boost to their social security payments from this month to help ease cost of living pressures.
Federal Member for Blair, Shayne Neumann, said the Albanese Labor Government has announced the largest indexation increase to payments in more than 30 years for allowances and 12 years for pensions.
“We want to ensure Australia has a strong social security safety net to protect our most disadvantaged,” he said.
“Our guiding principles as a government are ensuring no one is left behind and no one is held back and this indexation increase will help those on Government payments keep up with the cost of living.”
Age Pension, Disability Support Pension and Carer Payment are all set to rise by $38.90 a fortnight for singles and $58.80 a fortnight for couples.
The maximum rate of pension will increase to $1026.50 a fortnight for singles and $773.80 for each member of a pensioner couple or $1547.60 per couple (including Pension Supplement and Energy Supplement).
JobSeeker Payment, Parenting Payment, ABSTUDY and Rent Assistance will also increase.
The rate of JobSeeker Payment for singles without children will increase by $25.70 a fortnight to $677.20 including Energy Supplement, while Parenting Payment Single will increase by $35.20 per fortnight to $927.40 including Pension Supplement and Energy Supplement.
The rate for partnered Job-Seeker Payment and Parenting Payment recipients will increase by $23.40 a fortnight to $616.60 including Energy Supplement.
The pension raise was driven by increases in the Consumer Price Index which exceeded the increase in the Pensioner and Beneficiary Living Cost Index.
Some income and asset limits will also change as a result of the payment rate indexation to ensure people are not disadvantaged. Payments will increase from September 20.
The move follows the Albanese Government’s announcement at the Jobs and Skills Summit last week that recipients of the Age Pension and Service Pension would be able to earn more without having their payments reduced.
