As set out in the additional comments by the Australian Greens to the Senate Community Affairs inquiry into the Social Services Legislation Amendment (Enhancing Pensioner and Veteran Workforce Participation) Bill 2022, the Australian Greens welcome any proposal that provides additional support for age pensioners and other income support recipients, but urge the Government to undertake systematic reform that lifts the rate of all income support payments above the poverty line.
As the Antipoverty Centre noted in its submission on the Social Services Legislation Amendment (Enhancing Pensioner and Veteran Workforce Participation) Bill 2022:
All working age social security payments are below the Henderson poverty line. The government should treat with urgency the need for changes that would allow people on these payments to earn more before their income support is reduced and to lose less of each dollar we earn after the threshold is reached.
We also welcome the advocacy from National Seniors Australia and others, calling for an extension of the temporary increase period. As they noted in their submission:
The third issue is the policy does not give adequate time to promote the scheme, which could undermine the response, leading to limited uptake. To be effective, government will need to ensure this change is clearly communicated to pensioners and businesses. Even with this, we are concerned the ongoing complexity will discourage most from working.
Further to this is the issue of surety. Businesses facing critical labour shortages will be unable to ramp up services because the timeframe, starting in December 2022 and finishing in June 2023 is extremely limited. This is especially true for the provision of care services (e.g. home care) where providers are closing their books to new clients due to shortages of staff. We also have disability and residential aged care providers critically short of staff.
While National Seniors Australia supports any actions to increase workforce participation to meet critical labour force shortages, our preference is to enact more fundamental changes to ensure mobilisation is successful and ongoing.
Given the significant workforce shortages (job vacancies reached 470,900 in August 2022), our preference is for a 2-year trial of an economy wide opt in exemption from the income test for pensioners. This is the simplest solution and would send pensioners and their employers a clearer message, leading to higher mobilisation.
The amendments moved by Government in the House of Representatives, in negotiation with and supported by the Australian Greens, represent a clear improvement to the bill.
Recommendation
The Australian Greens recommend that the Government increase the rate of income support across all payments, not just the Age Pension, so that it is above the poverty line.
Recommendation
The Australian Greens recommend that the Government extend the Work Bonus to other income support payments, including JobSeeker and the Disability Support Pension.
Senator Janet Rice
Deputy Chair