Scott Morrison and the Finance Minister are facing backlash after the Prime Minister announced Sydneysiders stuck in lockdown without work will receive a cash boost to their disaster payment.
Critics have welcomed the extra payment but many claim others are being left “abandoned”, with Simon Birmingham facing a grilling on The Project with host Waleed Aly in a TV stoush overnight.
From Thursday the Covid-19 Disaster Payment will be raised to $750 per week for those who typically work over 20 hours, and $450 for individuals under 20 hours, matching the levels of the initial JobKeeper scheme.
“We will be further increasing the levels of support provided to individuals through the Covid Disaster Payment right across the state of New South Wales,” Scott Morrison said.
“We will be increasing from next week the maximum payment of $600 to $750 and we will be increasing the payment for less than 20 hours from $375 to $450.”
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In a statement after the announcement, the Australian Council of Trade Unions said the Morrison Government had “finally relented to pressure”, criticising the late decision which was more than a month into the Sydney lockdown.
“The Morrison Government has been dragged kicking and screaming into increasing the money provided through disaster payments,” ACTU President Michele O’Neil said.
“For many workers living in NSW who lost their livelihoods more than a month ago, it’s come far too late.
“We welcome the Morrison Government finally lifting the rates of support – but JobKeeper saved jobs and provided the security of knowing that you had a job to return to.
“Workers in NSW, and workers who will be affected by ongoing lockdowns, need that security.”
Individuals who receive welfare payments such as Youth Allowance and pension payments who have lost more than eight hours a week of work due to the covid lockdowns, will also be eligible for $200 a week in emergency payments.
The benefit will start from next week, with applications set to open on the Services Australia website on Tuesday.
“The whole point of this is that people aren’t able to earn that extra income they were earning and these payments are there to support them to ensure that there is some recognition of that, that they have been prevented from doing that,” Mr Morrison said.
“And this will provide them some additional support.”
Australian Council of Social Service CEO Dr Cassandra Goldie welcomed the extra $200 payment, expressed “alarm” that those with the very least have still been “abandoned”.
“The lockdown prevents everyone on social security payments from being able to find paid work – they all need this support,” Ms Goldie said in a statement.
“For all its talk of us all being in this together, the Government is dividing communities by providing financial support to some and leaving others who have the least behind them facing destitution on $44 a day.
“The Government is again abandoning those who need the support the most – people living on Jobseeker at $44 a day who have being trying to find paid work but have not been able to secure it.
“Youth Allowance is even less, at $36 a day. Most people’s rent alone is far more than $36 a day.
“This is a serious public health emergency – you can’t stay at home if you can’t afford to keep a roof over your head.”
Despite increasing pressure to bring back “JobKeeper 2”, Mr Morrison said it did not have the “agility” needed in the current outbreak.
“When we did JobKeeper, we had to employ it across the whole country all at once and we did it for six months.
“What we need now is the focused effort on where the need is right now. And so it can be turned on and off to the extent that we have outbreaks that occur.
“JobKeeper did not have that flexibility. It did not have that agility.”
While on The Project, Mr Birmingham refuted claims employees were being let go, claiming he hadn’t seen the “evidence” in a heated discussion with Waleed Aly.
Aly questioned Mr Birmingham on reports the application process for payments were “incredibly arduous and complicated”, claiming some are waiting up to five hours on the phone.
“Then at the end of that, they have to go into Centrelink, potentially in a lockdown when ideally you wouldn’t want them going anywhere, why would you set up a system that’s so arduous and inefficient?”
Mr Birmingham argued more than 90 per cent of claims were being successfully submitted online.
“Around a million claims have been successfully processed. People are receiving that money quite quickly”.
Aly interjected: “Do you have data on giving up”?
“Waleed what we know is the vast majority are successfully getting through and if there are specific cases then people should reach out.”
NSW recorded its worst day since the outbreak began on Wednesday, with 177 new cases across the state.
Lockdown measures have been extended for another four weeks in response to the escalating crisis. Of the 177 new cases, 46 were in the community for their entire infectious period.
NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian said “it would not have been realistic for the NSW government to make a decision in the next two weeks given where we are today”.
More than 94,000 people got swabbed in the last reporting period.
— with NewsWire’s Courtney Gould
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2021-07-28 14:57:47Z
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