Lift welfare benefits for vulnerable women: groups

Lifting welfare payments is key to ensuring women can be safe, Labor has been told

The Albanese government should lift welfare payments to help provide economic security for vulnerable women, business and community leaders say.

Almost 200 women, including former Labor MP Jenny Macklin, have written to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese demanding a boost in Jobseeker and Youth Allowance payments in this year’s federal budget.

Ahead of the 2024/25 budget, to be handed down by Treasurer Jim Chalmers next week, the government announced women escaping violent partners will get up to $5000 in support payments.

But leaders in the business, social services and political sectors say women also need long-term economic security.

“For women from all backgrounds, the impacts of poverty on the ability to leave violence and live in safety is profound,” they said in the letter released on Monday.

“Lifting social security payments will not negate the need to invest in frontline services and take the other critical steps to achieve women’ safety.

“However, it is a core part of ensuring women can do what they need to do in order to be safe.”

The government-appointed Economic Inclusion Advisory Committee recommended increasing JobSeeker and Youth Allowance payments in its 2024 report.

About 500,000 women receive the welfare payments, equating to $55 a day for JobSeeker and $45 a day for Youth Allowance.

Last year, the federal government changed the single parenting payment to benefit the youngest child up to 14 years of age.

Finance Minister Katy Gallagher, who’s also the women’s minister, said the government wanted economic equality for women.

“We look across the board at what is possible,” she told ABC’s Insiders on Sunday.