The South Australian Council of Social Service today released its latest Cost of Living Update, including a survey of over 500 low income households. The survey findings, which come against a backdrop of further social security cuts, show that respondents are suffering significant financial pressure and deprivation, and are being forced to cut-back on essential items including food, utilities and medical treatment.
SACOSS found that on the whole respondents were good financial managers, but due to financial hardship they were left with little choice but to cut-back on essential items. This is further evidence that income support payments are inadequate, and that the proposed cuts should not go ahead.
Specifically, the survey found that as a result of financial pressures:
• over half the people in the survey cut back on groceries and meal preparation,
• a third limited their use of electricity, gas and/or water,
• 40% were less mobile than they wanted to be,
• one third of respondents cut back or stopped medical treatment,
• one third cut back or dropped telecommunications and/or cut back or stopped their insurance.
SACOSS CEO Ross Womersley says, “The survey shows that people are cutting back to make ends meet, and there is a real risk that these cuts could leave them sicker, more isolated and more vulnerable”.
“Pretty obviously, when people are cutting back on necessities like food, medical treatment and energy consumption, they are in real hardship.
“And now the federal government has a raft of social security cuts on the table – things like stopping the Energy Supplement for new payment beneficiaries and imposing a waiting period on unemployed young people or keeping them on the lower Youth Allowance payment.
“These will make matters worse in the future.
“SACOSS is calling on the government to abandon these unfair cuts to social security and to raise the base level payments like Newstart by $53 a week, as supported by a range of business leaders, as well as the community services sector.
“There is just no getting around it – the key issue for these people is that their income payments are not adequate, and we know from our analysis of ABS living cost data that the situation has been getting worse in recent years.
“The survey also puts pay to the idea that people on income support are poor financial managers and are just making bad money choices, because most people in the group clearly identifed the major expenditure items and prioritised necessities.
The latest SACOSS Cost of Living Update is available at: www.sacoss.org.au/reports/cost-living
For further information/comment, contact:
Ross Womersley SACOSS CEO on 0418 805 426
Tania Baxter SACOSS Communications Officer on 0432 902 105