The 2020 Covid crisis has been an incredibly hard time for many Australians, especially those living in poverty. The Poverty and Inequality Partnership, led by the Australian Council of Social Service (ACOSS) and the University of New South Wales, has released a report that looks at how Covid relief payments have impacted people in need in Australia.
The report found that the Covid relief payments gave people in need a chance to afford basic needs, such as food and medication, but their removal has had a detrimental effect on those in need.
The report found that the Covid relief payments, including JobSeeker, JobKeeper, and one-off stimulus payments, enabled people in poverty to cover basic needs such as food and medication. Prior to the Covid relief payments, one in seven people in Australia were living in poverty. However, after the payments were introduced, this number dropped to one in eight. This is because the payments helped people in poverty to afford basics such as food and medication, as well as other necessities like rent and utilities.
However, the report also found that the removal of the Covid relief payments has had a detrimental effect on those in need. After the payments stopped, the number of people in poverty increased to one in seven and those in the most severe poverty increased to one in five. This means that many people in poverty are now having to go without meals or eat expired goods just to survive.
The report’s authors Kylie Valentine, Yuvisthi Naidoo, and Elizabeth Adamson stated, after interviewing 33 income support recipients, that it is evident the payments offered continuous relief to those going through financial difficulty and enabled them to plan for their future during an exceptionally difficult phase.
Due to the decrease in payment in September 2020, and its complete removal in April 2021, recipients were put into a state of financial difficulty and experienced heightened feelings of exclusion.
