SURGE IN OVER-55s ON NEWSTART UNDER LIBERAL GOVERNMENT - SUNDAY, 8 SEPTEMBER 2019 - MEDIA RELEASE

SURGE IN OVER-55s ON NEWSTART UNDER LIBERAL GOVERNMENT

 
The number of over-55s who receive Newstart has increased by over 45 per cent under the Liberals and Nationals. 
 
The number of over-55s on Newstart has surged by a staggering 58,313 over a five year period, according to the latest figures from the Department of Social Services.
 

OVER 55s ON NEWSTART

December 2013 - 125,630

December 2018 - 183,943

Increase - 58,313

Source: Dept. of Social Services

One in four Australians on Newstart are aged 55 or over – the single largest cohort of recipients of the allowance.

Older Australians experience particular difficulty in re-entering the workforce due to structural barriers and age discrimination.

The average person on Newstart has been on the payment for three years.

And many Australians are finding that they simply aren’t receiving enough hours at work to get by.

In fact, almost one in five – or over 130,000 – Newstart recipients have a job, but do not receive either enough hours or income to get them off the payment.

The reality is that it is not possible to live on Newstart. It’s making it more difficult to re-enter the workforce. People are finding it difficult to meet transport costs or afford clothes for job interviews.

Rather than stimulating our stagnating economy and easing the situation for older Australians who have fallen on hard times, Scott Morrison is more interested in subjecting them to humiliating urine tests.

How is it that Scott Morrison spends so much time obsessing over and devising ways to humiliate and prod older Australians who are trying to re-enter the workforce?

Yet, he has no plan for jobs and he has no plan to boost an economy that is getting weaker every day that he is Prime Minister.

SUNDAY, 8 SEPTEMBER 2019