Australian Government Set to Increase Jobless Payments After Pandemic Supplement Ends in March
The Australian government is set to introduce a permanent rise in the JobSeeker payment rate by $50 a fortnight or $3.57 a day. This will be the first real increase to the unemployment payment in Australia since 1994.
It is also the largest increase since 1986 and is expected to cost the country $9 billion dollars over the next four years.
The base rate of the Australian employment payment, formally known as Newstart, was set at $565 a fortnight or $40-a-day before the introduction of the COVID-19 supplement in March 2020.
The supplement, which is scheduled to end on Mar. 28, provided an extra payment of $550 fortnight, until Sep. 25, 2020 when it tapered to $250 a fortnight. It reduced to $150 on Jan. 1, 2021.