The Senate wants to hear from you!
Right now, the Senate is calling for public submissions into the Government's harsh budget cuts to the age pension, Newstart, the Disability Support Pension and Family Tax Benefits. The Senators trying to stop these devastating cuts have told us how important personal stories are to winning the fight.
Will you share your story now to give our Senators the anecdotal evidence they need to stop these unfair Budget measures from taking effect?
Making a submission is easy! There is no wrong way to do it, but here are some tips to get you started:
Remember to be polite! Many of these Senators are already on our side, but our stories are crucial for building the case to block the cuts to these vital social services once and for all.
Want to find out more about what the proposed cuts entail? See below!
Will you share your story now to give our Senators the anecdotal evidence they need to stop these unfair Budget measures from taking effect?
Making a submission is easy! There is no wrong way to do it, but here are some tips to get you started:
- Introduce yourself -- the most powerful stories are those that paint a compelling picture of the person involved. Who you are? Where you live? What do you do?
- Explain which of the social services payment you receive, or received -- How long did you receive them for? And for what reason?
- Tell us what difference this support made to your quality of life -- Was it helpful? Were you still struggling? What effect did it have on your daily life?
- Explain how a reduction in these support payments will (or would have) impacted your life -- What would you have to sacrifice? How would it affect your family? How would your life be different?
Remember to be polite! Many of these Senators are already on our side, but our stories are crucial for building the case to block the cuts to these vital social services once and for all.
Want to find out more about what the proposed cuts entail? See below!
This bill proposes:
- A 6 month waiting period for NewStart, leaving jobseekers with no access to financial support.
- Introducing a mandatory work for the dole programme, which has been proven to make it more difficult for jobseekers to find employment.
- Introducing a mandatory Earn or Learn programme, where jobeekers will be forced into study in order to receive support.
- Raising the age of eligibility for NewStart from 22 to 24, leaving people under 24 on the lesser payment Youth Allowance.
- Measuring the payment rate in line with inflation, rather than the standard indexation of average earnings of a male worker, which equates to over $300 million of cuts across all social services payments.
- Resetting the "deeming thresholds", which further reduces the payment amount that pensioners are eligible to receive.
This bill proposes:
- Raising the retirement age to 70.
- Making the Senior's Health Card more difficult to qualify for by including untaxed superannuation in the assets test.
- Cutting the Seniors Supplement, an annual, one-off payment of $876.20 to self-funded pensioners who hold a Senior's Health Card.
- Measuring the payment rate in line with inflation, rather than the standard indexation of average earnings of a male worker, which equates to over $300 million of cuts across all social services payments.
- Resetting the "deeming thresholds", which further reduces the payment amount that pensioners are eligible to receive.
This bill proposes:
- People under 35 who receive the Disability Support Pension will have their payments revised under a new, stricter impairment table. This new table will seek to make it more difficult for people to prove their disability is an ongoing impairment that prevents them from working.
- Limiting the "portability period" for people with a disability, restricting their movements overseas to a maximum of four weeks per year before payments are affected.
- Removing the automatic three month backdating of the Veterans Disability Pension.
This bill proposes:
- New income threshold test for recipients of the Family Tax Benefit (FTB) part B will be reduced to $100,000.
- Families will be cut off from the payment when their youngest child turns six, rather than 16.
- The end-of-year supplements will be reduced to $600 (FTB A) and $300 (FTB B) respectively
- The payment rates of the two benefits will be frozen for the next two years.
- The income threshold for families receiving FTB A reduced from a maximum of about $150,000 to a new maximum of $94,316.