Coalition’s $50 jobseeker rise more generous than Labor’s proposal, Pocock says

The Morrison government's post-Covid decision to lift jobseeker payments by $50 a fortnight helped more people than the Albanese government's mooted 55-plus budget proposal, the key crossbench senator David Pocock says.

With less than a week to go until the budget is handed down, advocates and MPs are becoming increasingly concerned the Albanese government's second budget will not do enough to help those living below the poverty line, or help women re-enter the workforce.

Pocock said the Albanese government risks being less generous than even the Morrison government if it does not raise jobseeker for all.

Figures compiled by the Parliamentary Library for Pocock found the Morrison government's decision to lift low income support payments by $50 a fortnight in 2021 helped more people than would the 55-plus boost the Albanese government looks poised to implement in next week's budget.

The Coalition raised the rate of jobseeker, youth allowance, youth disability support pension, parenting payment and Austudy by $50 a fortnight from 1 April 2021, after scrapping the Covid subsidy, which temporarily doubled income support and lifted more than a million people out of poverty.

At the time, there were 1.2 million people receiving jobseeker. The number of people on jobseeker is now estimated to be about 1.4 million. If the government moves ahead with only raising jobseeker for people aged 55 and over, 685,000 people will miss out on help. Currently, people aged over 60 can receive up to $745.20, which is an extra $52 a fortnight than the jobseeker payment for under 60-year-olds.

Pocock said he wanted to give the government the benefit of the doubt leading up to the budget, but it looked like younger people were being left behind.

"It's disappointing that, after the spending announcements we've seen and the unwillingness to revisit the stage-three tax cuts, it looks like this government will balance their wellbeing budget by choosing to leave Australians on jobseeker and youth allowance in poverty," he said.

"The government needs to listen to the experts who have said the inadequacy of the payment is acting as a barrier to re-entering the workforce."

Teal independent MPs, including Dr Monique Ryan, Zoe Daniel and Allegra Spender have all called for any assistance to be made available to all low income payment recipients, while Greens MPs are mobilising to use their Senate balance of power to try to push the government to go further.

Spender told Guardian Australia that for the long-term unemployed, jobseeker "is not enough money to live on".

"What I would like to see is some understanding of those other cohorts, including younger people, and how they deal with poverty," she said. "I'm concerned [55] is a bit of a false number.

"How does this help people into jobs? That was one of the key parts of the recommendation of the economic inclusion advisory committee - are we doing enough to solve that long-term problem?"

The Liberal MP Bridget Archer said any raise was a start but it had to be across the board.

"Poverty equally affects people right across the age demographics, right across that spectrum, not just in that cohort above age 55," she said.

The treasurer, Jim Chalmers, did not confirm or deny any of the speculation about the payments.

"Typically, in the lead up to the budget and particularly the week before a budget, there's always a lot of speculation," he said.

"Often large swathes of that is accurate and some of it turns out to be inaccurate and so I would caution you against making assumptions about what is in and not in the budget."

Meanwhile, there were also fears the government would not pick up a key recommendation to improve women's workforce participation by scrapping the childcare activity test, which dictates how much childcare subsidy a parent can receive. Instead, there were concerns that measure would be kicked down the road.

The women's economic equality taskforce report handed to the government had spoken of the need to improve the situation for all Australian women, including through the abolition of the activity test and raising the base rate for income support, regardless of age.