ADDITIONAL COMMENTS BY THE AUSTRALIAN GREENS


ADDITIONAL COMMENTS BY THE AUSTRALIAN GREENS

1.1        The Australian Greens support measures that encourage rural and remote young people to be able to access higher education. We also support measures to simplify the system where these changes are fair and reasonable.

1.2        The Social Services Legislation Amendment (More Generous Means Testing for Youth Payments) Bill 2015 does not address the larger issues of the inadequacy of the Youth Allowance payment—this was noted by the Australian Council of Social Service (ACOSS) and the National Welfare Rights Network submissions to the inquiry:

In our opinion, inadequacy of the youth allowance rate itself, and the extremely narrow criteria for independent status are the main social security issues affecting access to education. If spending of youth allowance is to increase, it should be to increase rates of payment, make the criteria for independent status more flexible and increase access to the payment for lower income families rather than high income and asset families.[1]

1.3        Increasing the payment amount should be an urgent priority for the Government.

1.4        The key concern raised during the inquiry was that removing the family and personal asset tests for Youth Allowance for dependent young people could enable wealthy families to manage their wealth so as to access a payment intended for lower income families.

1.5        The Australian Greens propose a review in two years of these measures to ensure that there are not adverse outcomes as a result of removing the family and personal asset tests.

1.6        The Australian Greens share submitters' concerns that the removal of the family and personal asset tests is not the best approach to address the issues raised by farm assets in accessing income support payments, and that this issue should be looked at across the whole social security system. As ACOSS pointed out:

If there are anomalies in the assets test treatment of farms, these should be resolved across the social security system rather than by excepting one payment.[2]

1.7        The Greens recommend that a review of the effect of these measures be carried out in two years. 

Senator Rachel Siewert

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