Social services organisations have called for an independent commission to be set up to determine the rate of payment for Newstart recipients:
Calling for an increase to the payment in their submission, groups including Uniting Communities, the Combined Pensioners and Superannuants Association and the Consumers Health Forum said a social security commission should help set the rate of welfare payments including Newstart to avoid a repeat of the 25-year “freeze” of the unemployment payment.
The commission would determine an acceptable standing of living for people on Newstart and then determine rates of payment and indexation, the groups said in separate submissions.
