Rent set to gobble $15 a fortnight from single pension
Australians on the single pension will receive an extra $15 a fortnight from Monday but public housing rents are set to gobble that up, AAP News services is reporting.
New South Wales (NSW), Western Australia (WA) and the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) have rebuffed Federal Government calls to permanently quarantine last year’s one-off $30-a-week pension increase from rent calculations.
This means single age and disability pensioners in those states will be hit with an extra $19 fortnightly public housing bill from Monday as their welfare payments climb by $15 through indexation.
Under the latest biannual indexation, the single pension will rise to $716 a fortnight, which includes $58 in supplementary utility allowances.
Couples on the pension will see their welfare payments rise by $23 a fortnight to $1080. However state and territory public housing bodies calculate fortnightly rent based on a quarter of the base single pension, which rises to $658 from Monday.
Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania and the Northern Territory have agreed to permanently quarantine last year’s one-off $30-a-week single pension increase from future rent calculations.
But in NSW, WA and the ACT, that one-off pension increase will be included in the overall calculation of income when rent is charged for public housing.
That means single pensioners in those states will be paying $19 a fortnight more for accommodation from Monday.
The Combined Pensioners and Superannuants Association (CPSA) of NSW has urged those state governments to remember why the Federal Government increased the single pension by $30 a week in the first place last year.
“The pension reform was to help single pensioners who are doing it tough,” CPSA policy co-ordinator, Charmaine Crowe, told AAP News.
