Chapter 3The human impact of poverty
I want to dispel the myth that poverty is just about being hungry. Poverty is living on $48 a day … Poverty is being a woman and having to wear bits of rag when you have your period because you can't afford pads or tampons. Poverty is watching your son be homeless and you not being able to help him. Poverty is eating out of dumpsters. Poverty is being isolated and housebound because you can't even afford a bus fare. Poverty is having to go and look for work feeling sick and nauseous because you haven't eaten for four days. Poverty is losing your teeth because you can't afford dental care … Poverty is rationing life-saving medication until you have a stroke. Poverty is only eating once a day. Poverty is when you've got a sick child but you can't afford medication, not even Panadol.
2.1This chapter outlines the devastating and wide-ranging impacts that poverty has on Australian individuals, families and communities. It highlights the hardships and deprivations that those living in poverty face across all facets of life including shelter, health, education and economic and social participation.
2.2As highlighted in the quote above from Rita, a witness who appeared at a public hearing in Murray Bridge, this chapter also outlines how the impacts of poverty are inextricably linked and interrelated.
2.3The committee also looks at the evidence on the combined and complex challenges faced by various marginalised population groups in Australia, due to overlapping and intersecting forms of disadvantage and inequality.
2.4The committee hopes that illustrating the human impacts of poverty will create a better understanding of what poverty really is and how Australians are experiencing it. The committee believes that centring those with lived experience is central to identifying solutions.
The overarching and intersecting impacts of poverty
2.5Inquiry participants highlighted that poverty is not just about a lack of resources, but a lack of opportunity and choices – with many people forced to go without vital things in favour of other vital things.
2.6Jessica, a single mother of a young child in Sydney, reflected on how difficult it is to make these choices:
I don't mind challenges in life. I don't mind the hard graft. But I really don't feel that it needs to be quite this hard. I don't think it's unreasonable for me to want to be in a position where I can pay my rent, pay my bills and feed myself and my child. I think that should be the bare minimum, to be honest. I think that we live in a resource-rich country but that there is not an equitable distribution of that wealth between everyone.
… It could be so much better. It could be so much less of a struggle, and I could feel less like I'm fighting for my life every single bloody day.
2.7Chief Executive Officer of the Australian Council of Social Service (ACOSS), DrCassandra Goldie, explained:
You will have heard how poverty removes people's agency and limits opportunity. It takes away our independence. It leads to a corrosive decline in heath, both physical and mental, and is a cause of deep social isolation and stress in terms of our human relationships. It places people in situations where they must make impossible choices between eating or getting essential medical care.
2.8Many explained that whilst poverty affects people in all corners of the country, particular population groups including women, children, young people, older people, people with disability, carers, single parents, people in the LGBTQIA+ community, people in rural and remote communities, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, and culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) communities including refugees and migrants, are more vulnerable to the impacts of poverty and face layered forms of disadvantage and structural barriers.
2.9Inquiry participants emphasised that these cohorts are not mutually exclusive, and that they often intersect to further compound disadvantage, discrimination and marginalisation. Similarly, it was made clear that the impacts of poverty on all aspects of a person’s life such as shelter, health, education, employment and social participation, intersect and overlap to compound hardship, and create a cycle that traps people in poverty and entrenches it across generations.
Shelter
2.10The committee received a range of evidence about people’s experiences of homelessness and housing insecurity. Many told the committee about their fear of imminent homelessness, and difficulties in achieving basic living standards due to unsafe housing, rising rents and increasing energy costs. Others outlined the intergenerational impacts of insecure housing, as well as particular vulnerabilities faced by people with disability and women escaping domestic violence.
2.11The Western Australia Council of Social Service provided the following reflection from one individual:
When you are on the streets you are invisible. People pass by and look right through you, as if you are not even there. No matter how moral a person is, you find yourself being reduced to doing things you have to, just to survive.
2.12At a public hearing in Perth, Len described his experience of becoming homeless after injuring himself at age 58 and becoming unable to work:
At 58, I just couldn't see a future. It was in the back of my mind, but I thought: 'Well, there's no other option. I've got to go out on the streets. I can't pay the rent. I can't pay the back rent.' I couldn't see any other option.
…I headed for town, and I remember I felt immediate relief, like a great pressure had been taken off my shoulders. I felt freedom—I still remember it—as I was walking around. But it didn't last long. Everyone was rushing everywhere. It was Friday afternoon at four or five o'clock. And then reality bit—'Where am I going to sleep tonight? I've got a backpack.' I didn't have a blanket. I wasn't prepared at all. I didn't have a sleeping bag. Then I remember I though: 'Oh, no! I've lost my keys! Hang on; I don't have any keys.' For the first time in my life, I had no keys.
... I just got behind a little wall there—no-one was there, because it was an office—and I just laid on the cold concrete. That's how I spent the first night—a Friday night—just laying on concrete. I didn't sleep. I was just drifting in and out of consciousness…
2.13Genevieve, a single parent of a young child in Melbourne, spoke of her fear and stress of imminent homelessness:
I have registered for public and social housing. The local housing organisation tells me that the waitlist is 15 years. There's no transitional priority housing available. They also told me on several occasions that my son and I will be homeless, as is the case—apparently there are mums and babies, mums and young children, living in cars in Australia, in this affluent country. I don't have any family or friends to stay with, so our situation is dire. I'm under enormous stress. I'm both physically and mentally exhausted.
2.14Submitters outlined that people living in poverty face significant housing quality and safety issues, such as mould, overcrowding, and energy unaffordability which can lead to growing debt, defaulting on other financial obligations, the forgoing of other essential goods and services (including food and medication), and being forced to limit energy consumption, resulting in harmful indoor temperature environments.
2.15Jennifer highlighted how some people can become trapped in homelessness:
… I spent nearly eight years sleeping in my car because I couldn't find anywhere suitable to live. The longer I went without anywhere to live, without an address, the harder it became for me to find anywhere suitable to live. What land agent is, realistically, going to rent a home to somebody who doesn't have a rental history for eight years? How do you explain that you've been homeless for eight years to somebody?
2.16Jennifer also explained how homelessness can have intergenerational impacts, as it did for her son:
I became a victim of homelessness because of legal rental laws. My landlord decided that she was not going to renew my lease. She only gave me two weeks notice. There was nothing I could do about it. It was end of lease, and it was completely lawful. I had nowhere to go and still had no family support. I had an eight-year-old son, then.
… He didn't know we were homeless. I had to bring him back to Adelaide because he had to go to school, and we still had nowhere to live. I was lucky that I got a place in the Middle Beach caravan park. He then had to move schools. My son, who is now 24, is still experiencing homelessness. This is normal to him. This is his life now. It's the only thing he knows.
2.17Various submitters identified that certain population groups including people with disability, women escaping domestic violence and people in the LGBTQIA+ community face additional vulnerabilities and challenges in accessing safe, secure and appropriate housing.
2.18The Public Health Association of Australia explained that people with disability have poorer housing outcomes compared with the Australian population as a whole. People with Disability Australia added that people with disability face an increased susceptibility to homelessness and a lack of appropriate housing options – often being forced to accept unsuitable options such as nursing homes, hospitals, group homes and boarding houses.
2.19Disability Advocacy New South Wales similarly noted that people with disability on low incomes face a lack of affordable and accessible homes:
Social and public housing is not a viable immediate option for people urgently needing housing. The wait time for social and public housing on average is 10 years for general housing and 15 years for an accessible home. There is no priority housing for [people with disability], making them vulnerable to housing issues.
2.20Some submitters, including Save the Children & 54Reasons described how many women experiencing domestic violence face the ‘impossible choice’ between remaining in a violent relationship or leaving to a life of poverty and potential homelessness:
A mother who leaves her home with her child due to violence typically immediately faces significant financial hardship and the need to find accommodation. In many cases no accommodation can be found.
If she does find accommodation, she is often moved from place to place due to the lack of available or longer-term accommodation – for example, from Brisbane to the Gold Coast and back again. This is extremely disruptive to say the least. For children, whose wellbeing and healthy development so strongly depend on stability and routine, it is extraordinarily stressful.
… Given these challenges, it is extremely difficult to find and retain a job, increasing the financial pressure. The mother may have no choice other than to place her children in unsafe environments – at home and outside – to find and retain employment, in order to provide for the child and herself.
All this is happening in a state of significant financial and psychological stress, with domestic and family violence and coercive control potentially ongoing.
2.21Further, a case study from Equality Australia outlined how people part of the LGBTQIA+ community at risk of homelessness can face layered forms of discrimination and hardship:
Harley* sought accommodation at a refuge provided by a faith-based organisation after fleeing intimate partner and family violence in 2015. They were counselled against disclosing their sexuality or wearing rainbow items of clothing and told they were ‘going to hell’ by a staff member who said they would ‘pray for God to show them the way’. Harley left the refuge and spent three nights sleeping on the streets. In 2021, Harley and their wife (a trans woman) sought emergency accommodation from a different faith-based organisation. Harley’s wife was told she would need to go to a men’s shelter rather than access the same facility as Harley.
Health
2.22Inquiry participants described the detrimental impacts that poverty has on both physical and mental health. Physical health consequences include physical inactivity, dietary and food insecurity issues, chronic health conditions, and the foregoing of medical appointments and essential medications. The mental health implications of poverty include chronic stress, depression, anxiety, and suicidality.
Physical health
2.23The Equity Project summarised the broad ranging impacts that poverty and food insecurity have on the health of Australian individuals and families:
…families affected by poverty often resort to diverse survival strategies, which include, but are not limited to skipping meals or reducing food portions; substituting fresh and/or nutritionally dense food for cheap, highly processed and inferior quality food; mixing baby formula to less than required strength in order to make it go further; and limiting the consumption of protein rich, but relatively costly, products such as meat and cheese. There is also evidence of some people substituting culturally appropriate (e.g. Halal) food with cheaper, less culturally appropriate options.
2.24Other lived experience accounts highlighted that people in financial hardship face significant challenges in managing their diet and physical health, such as the following reflection from Kerry, a 60 year old recipient of the Disability Support Pension:
I’m living on a shoestring, and my health is suffering as well. The doctor says to me, ‘Your diabetes is high, you’ve got to eat better.’ And I said, ‘Well, I can’t eat better because there’s no money.’ If I had the money, of course you can buy better food … and I would go to the gym as well, but I can’t do that because there’s no money. He wanted to send me to a dietitian and I said, ‘Well, you’re wasting your time. I know what to eat, the problem is I can’t.’…
2.25Evidence to the committee indicated that despite parents’ best efforts, poverty can also affect children’s physical health and development – for example, they miss out on opportunities to be active and participate in sport, and poor nutrition and hunger can negatively affect school performance. These challenges were described by one parent:
I don't get to go out and do activities that I'd always like to do with him. I'd like him to do something like Little Kickers, I think would be good for him but it costs a couple of hundred dollars a term and I can't afford that. It’s hard [because] he's always fed but it's not always like the nutritious meal that I'd like it to be. Sometimes it might just be like a tin of spaghetti or something.
2.26Several submitters also made clear that poverty and food insecurity can have serious longer-term and chronic health implications, including increased risk of:
weight loss or, paradoxically, overweight and obesity (due to the consumption of unhealthy foods instead of higher cost, nutrient rich foods, as well as cycles of fasting and bingeing);
malnutrition;
dental problems;
cardiovascular disease;
type 2 diabetes;
mental illness; and
all-cause mortality.
2.27Many highlighted that not only does poverty and financial hardship contribute to the chronic health conditions outlined above, but that it also leads people to forego medical appointments and medications – that would help manage their chronic health conditions – to pay for other necessities like food, rent or utilities.
2.28South East Community Links, a Melbourne-based emergency relief and community service provider, explained that forgoing medical appointments and medication can worsen people’s overall health over the long-term, and potentially lead to more extensive, expensive and invasive medical treatment or support. It was also noted that untreated or undiagnosed conditions have a devasting impact on a person's overall health and wellbeing.
2.29At a public hearing held in Western Sydney, one witness explained how poverty has affected their access to healthcare and medication:
There have been a lot of health effects. The first few years I lost a lot of weight both from the stress and from not eating much. Then I had a lot of gut problems and developed an auto-immune disorder which I didn't recognise for a long time—I thought, 'Isn't that great? I'm putting weight back on,' but it wasn't a healthy thing at all. Last year I had emergency gallbladder surgery. I knew I had some gallbladder issues, and I had a few bouts of excruciating pain, but I couldn't afford to see a specialist, so by the time I ended up in emergency my gallbladder was rupturing. I also have chronic migraines, but I can't afford to see a specialist or get good medication for that.
2.30Alison also described her difficulties in affording medical appointments in a submission from the National Council of Single Mothers and their Children:
Myself and my two children all need to see a GP. No bulkbilling clinics near us. Can’t afford the out-of-pocket cost of $300. I should have been seeking treatment and advice to a reaction to medication – just can’t afford it. Not sure if I should stop the medication or manage the ongoing diarrhea. It’s too much to pack up the kids and travel to the emergency department – about a 48-hour roundtrip.
2.31Among other submitters, the National Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Association (NACCHO) explained that access to culturally safe health services is a critical issue for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. NACCHO flagged that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders face a lack of local providers which may require a person to move away from family and country to access care, a lack of culturally appropriate care, experiences of systemic and interpersonal racism, and a distrust in institutional care as a result of both personal and historical experiences.
2.32NACCHO outlined that a lack of culturally appropriate care can lead to ‘unequal, sub-optimal or inappropriate’ health service provision, and that this can lead to dismissal of symptoms, misdiagnoses, which can mean that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are less likely to seek care.
2.33Further, the National Rural Health Alliance reported that households living in income poverty in rural and regional areas face additional problems which exacerbate poverty. It highlighted that on average, people living in rural Australia have higher exposure to health risk factors, higher levels of disease and injury, reduced access to health services, and ultimately experience poorer health outcomes as a result.
Mental health
2.34The committee received a range of testimony about people’s experience of mental illness and psychological distress due to poverty. The Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists explained how poverty can contribute to poor mental health:
Poverty is a stressful experience that creates or amplifies many day-to-day challenges, such as struggling to cover regular costs (e.g., transportation and other necessities) or to managed unexpected costs. These stressors can have a significant negative impact on a person’s overall quality of life including their mental health.
Experiencing poverty can also cause a person to experience a perceived loss of status which can lead to feelings of poor self-worth and a loss of optimism for the future, again contributing to mental ill-health.
2.35Submitters reported that living in a constant state of financial stress and limited opportunities increases the risk of mental health issues such as depression and anxiety, and also leaves some people without hope for the future, locked in ‘survival mode’ where they can only focus on surviving the day. Kerry, a 60year old recipient of the Disability Support Pension stated:
There is no future, the only future is death. And I don’t mean to sound morbid or anything, but I’m so limited in everything I can do that sometimes I think well, Lord give me cancer so I can die because I can’t take it anymore.
2.36A frontline staff member at Anglicare Southern Queensland also reflected on the toll that poverty has on the mental health of their clients:
Poverty also places extreme stress on the mental health and emotional wellbeing of clients, which impacts family functioning relationship. As a result we are seeing more clients with anxiety, depression and decline in other mental health conditions, which increases their support needs.
2.37Some submitters such as the Western Australian Association of Mental Health (WAAMH) pointed out the ‘bidirectional causal link’ between poverty and mental ill health – where poverty is both a cause and consequence of mentalill-health. This was reflected in testimony from one individual who described their lived experience of mental illness leading to poverty, and vice versa:
I will never know what came first for me, mental illness or poverty. All I do know for sure is that trauma is usually underneath any disadvantage and that is a cycle that is extremely difficult to stop, especially when the mental health sector is disconnected from the contributing factors that cause distress.
2.38WAAMH also flagged that the political and public discourse around people experiencing poverty, and those receiving income support often denigrates people as:
… lazy, irresponsible, the ‘deserving’ and ‘undeserving poor’, ‘welfare dependent’, ‘economic burdens and bludgers’ and ‘leaners’ on the public purse.
2.39WAAMH emphasised that this discourse has serious consequences for people’s wellbeing and mental health, and that these attitudes can be internalised by many and evoke feelings of shame, worthlessness and being burdensome.
2.40In terms of suicidality, Lifeline Australia reported that socioeconomic status has reliably been identified as a factor which impacts suicide risk. It noted that over the past decade, age-standardised suicide rates in Australia were highest for those living in the lowest socioeconomic areas. Lifeline Australia explained that this data is consistent with findings from other studies which found that financial hardship was shown to be associated with an increased risk of suicidal behaviour and ideation.
2.41Some submitters outlined that the association between poverty and mental ill-health may disproportionately impact young people. Orygen explained that young people aged 16 to 25 years old have the highest prevalence of mental ill-health and that young people with direct experiences of poverty have noted that the mental health system feels inaccessible and unaffordable.
2.42However, in terms of access to services, the General Manager of Policy and Advocacy at the Salvation Army pointed out that ‘the best clinical care in the world won’t make a difference if you’re sending them out to sleep in their car afterwards’.
2.43Inquiry participants also flagged that CALD communities including newly arrived migrants and refugees, as well as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, are particularly vulnerable to poverty-related mental ill-health. The Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists noted that on top of the heightened risk of poverty and disadvantage for these groups, people in these communities are subject to stigma, discrimination and racism, which further compound the risk of mental illness.
Economic participation
2.44Throughout the inquiry, submitters and witnesses brought to light the significant consequences that poverty has on their economic participation – both in education and in the workforce.
2.45Children and Young People with Disability Australia (CYDA) provided an overview of how education and employment are interrelated, and how they impact on poverty and economic outcomes:
Having a quality education helps set us up for life. On an individual level, quality education and educational attainment are linked with increased employment outcomes, higher wage earnings, and reduced reliance on base level income support as a main source of income later in life. The skills, attributes and knowledge we gain through getting a good education also support us to be active citizens, contributing to the economic security at both an individual and community level.
Education
2.46Several inquiry participants described how poverty impacts Australians across all levels of education — from early childhood, to primary and secondary school, to tertiary education.
2.47The Smith Family highlighted that across all key educational outcome measures including NAPLAN, school completion rates, post-school employment, and education and training measures — young people from disadvantaged backgrounds and poverty achieve significantly below their more advantaged peers.
2.48The Australian Institute of Family Studies submitted that children in poverty experience poorer developmental and cognitive outcomes and lower school readiness, leading to many falling behind their peers in cognitive and academic performance, which can result in an entrenched and ongoing cycle of poverty.
2.49One mother described how her financial situation has affected her children’s education and participation in extracurriculars:
My kids' education has been affected as well, despite my best efforts to shield them. I can't afford the extracurricular activities and expenses. They wear donated uniforms. The teachers get them in trouble for not having the right shoes. It's really unfair. As my kids have got older, I've seen them trying to pretend to me that they didn't really want to do the things that they couldn't do. That makes me really sad.
2.50Save the Children and 54 Reasons highlighted the perspective of children in terms of their experiences of poverty and life at school:
From children we work with at 54 reasons, we hear words like “embarrassed”, “ashamed”, “isolated”, “alone”, “anxious” and “stressed” when describing their experiences of poverty and its effects, and phrases like “I can’t go to school when I don’t have what I need”.
2.51Inquiry participants also highlighted that the ‘digital divide’ (including the lack of access to technology and affordable, reliable internet) disadvantages children experiencing poverty by limiting their ability to fully participate in education, among a variety of other impacts.
2.52In regard to tertiary education, the National Tertiary Education Union explained that financial stress and disadvantage is associated with increased withdrawal rates, reduced academic performance and poorer overall wellbeing among students.
2.53The Multicultural Youth Advocacy Network Australia raised concern that many people living in Australia on long term temporary visas face additional barriers to tertiary education, such as the requirement to pay full international student tuition fees, and exclusion from government support payments such as Austudy and HELP loans.
2.54Nadia, a single mother of three children, told the committee how these barriers are impacting her children’s education prospects:
I've been four years waiting for a visa. As a single mom, I'm not eligible for any government income. It's hard for me to raise my children. For my children's studies, both [university] and high school fees cost international prices, which I can't afford.
My daughter graduated from high school last year. She got a [university] offer, but not the scholarship. We are not eligible for study loans, as well. How do we pay for studies as well? I'm really scared and worried about my children's future. I'm scared that I failed to provide them with a good education and life due to my situation.
2.55Among other submitters, CYDA flagged that young people with disability are not accessing education, including university and vocational education and training (VET), on an equal basis to their peers without disability. CYDA also described other issues that people with disability experience with regard to tertiary education, including reduced study and course options, lack of meaningful supports, poor attitudes from university staff, and overall inaccessibility and inflexibility.
Employment
2.56Throughout the inquiry, submitters and witnesses explained how poverty is a barrier to employment, and highlighted the broad and compounding impacts that unemployment, underemployment, precarious employment and low wages have on the daily lives of Australians.
2.57The Brotherhood of St Laurence reported that inadequate income support ‘traps people in poverty’ and undermines efforts to retrain or seek work. Similarly, the Life Course Centre explained that poverty is a ‘disabling’ factor in relation to job search and employment outcomes, adding that paternalistic ‘welfare-as-work’ practices including mutual obligation and conditionality requirements make it difficult for people to move beyond survival to focus on achieving broader education and employment goals.
2.58Mr Andrew Lawrence, a member of the Australian Unemployed Workers’ Union explained how poverty has impacted his ability to find employment:
Poverty is a barrier to employment as well. If I get a job interview, I can't just pull the money I need to get a haircut and a nice shirt for the interview and get my suit dry-cleaned. That comes to about $150 to get all that, and I just can't pull that out of the air, and the job networks won't help you with that.
2.59Some inquiry participants advised that high transport costs keep many out of the labour force. For example, in a case study provided by Economic Justice Australia, Mick explained the difficulties he has experienced being on income support and affording the costs associated with job hunting:
As a single parent with a 14 year old son, he said he found it extremely difficult to cover all of his basic household expenses. This often meant Mick ran out of money in the second week of his fortnightly payment period, leaving him with no money for public transport, and unable to attend job interviews that weren’t within walking distance of his home. He also often couldn’t afford to top up the credit on his phone, which made it hard for him to engage with employers and employment service providers - sometimes leading to his payments being suspended, increasing his hardship, and making it more difficult for him to pay for the costs associated with job hunting.
2.60Mr Duncan Emmins, Wellbeing and Engagement Mentor at Murray Bridge High School, similarly explained the challenges his students face with transport costs being a barrier to employment, and how this is a particular challenge for those living in the regions:
Poverty also affects our students’ life goals. Issues continue as the students seek apprenticeships/employment in the area after school. Most students have to travel to obtain work. They struggle to obtain employment as they can’t afford a license ($1000s of dollars), never mind getting a car (that ‘just roadworthy’ car that used to cost $500 now costs $2,500).
… So there are so many barriers to students moving from school, which you want them to do, to gain [full] employment, if you like to put it that way … Obviously, it’s a huge issue for regional Australia and it’s a huge issue for Murray Bridge.
2.61The Australian Unemployed Workers’ Union highlighted how the $550 COVID supplement provided during the COVID-19 pandemic helped improve employment outcomes for recipients:
… people could afford to get a job. They were well nourished. They were less stressed. They were well rested. They had new shoes and a car that worked. They managed to get their responsible service of alcohol ticket or whatever they needed. People want to work if they can.
2.62The committee received evidence about women and carers facing additional vulnerabilities and challenges in finding employment and in relation to economic participation. Carers New South Wales told the committee that while many carers are unable to, or choose not to, engage in paid employment, many others balance their caring responsibilities with paid work. It acknowledged that this is sometimes a choice, but more often due to financial necessity, adding that:
Carers who choose to balance care and work can face significant barriers to economic participation, including reductions in work hours or leaving the workforce entirely, resulting in gaps in employment and subsequent lapsing of skills and qualifications. These impacts on economic participation have significant effects on carers’ long-term financial security and their health and wellbeing. Furthermore, participation in work can also impact on a carer’s time and capacity to provide care.
2.63This reflection submitted by the Council of Single Mothers and their Children also highlighted the particular employment and economic security challenges faced by single mothers:
Single mothers are working mothers where possible. Our households have half the income and double the responsibilities. If we cannot work due to disability - including mental health - we are on the breadline… We also have more interrupted employment - hence markedly less superannuation. And we are more likely to resort to withdrawing lump sums on financial hardship grounds. I am so lucky I own my home but food and bills are always a struggle. I am constantly only 1 week away from defaulting on my bills.
2.64Uniting Victoria Tasmania highlighted the issues with an approach to income support that prioritised an individual’s workforce participation over parenting, and shared an account from a female living in Tasmania:
We want to go get a job, but then we have to pay for daycare, that’s something like $100 a day. You can't. You've also got to worry about getting a job between 9 and 2 because then you’ve got to pick the kids up from school… When you've got kids it's not exactly easy to go and get a job. So therefore, we can't afford to go to the doctors, and we can't afford to do things like pay all our bills or afford this horrible housing situation.
Social participation
2.65Many inquiry participants informed the committee of the wide-ranging impacts that poverty and financial hardship has on their social lives. Anglicare Southern Queensland broadly outlined that poverty can generate feelings of shame or inferiority that might induce people to withdraw socially, and limited resources can curtail opportunities to initiate or maintain personal relationships.
2.66One witness described how poverty has impacted their ability to initiate and maintain social connections:
In terms of my social life, it's really hard, because I can't just go and meet up with a friend for coffee—I can't afford to do that. I have a couple of friends that know my situation and they occasionally invite me out on the understanding that they'll pay for coffee or lunch, but it feels really awkward and it means that I never feel like I can be the one to initiate a social interaction because that would feel like asking them for money. I never invite my friends over for meals, either, because I'm kind of embarrassed about our food. I can't afford to buy anything extra or anything better than what we normally eat. It's very isolating, socially.
2.67Peter, a 58 year old man from Melbourne, explained the shame he felt when he was unable to contribute to the commemoration of his mother’s death:
To be on income support and have no money is very dispiriting. It is crushing. It is soul destroying. You become socially isolated…
The anniversary of my mother's death occurs on Saturday. That is a very painful memory for me. The reason is this: when she died, the family, as families do, came together. Families, as you know, buy food. You might buy pizzas. You might buy chicken. Somebody will buy salads. Somebody will buy bread. I had $5 in my pocket. I couldn't afford to pay my share. I felt shame. I was ashamed. It was a silly emotion—I accept that—but I felt it. It was horrible.
2.68Ms Catherine Caine from the Australian Unemployed Workers’ Union also outlined how poverty has affected social and community participation, as well as interpersonal relationships:
When you're in poverty, you simply do not possess the bandwidth to read a complicated novel, learn a foreign language, volunteer at your kids' school or join the SES; or to learn to sketch or plant a garden; or to be a good sibling, a good friend, a good neighbour or a good citizen. It limits what so many people are capable of and what they can contribute, and it leaves marks that their grandchildren will puzzle over—if they are one of those fortunate enough to get that far.
2.69The committee heard that poverty also impacts on children and young people’s social connections and development. For example, a submission from the South Australian Commissioner for Children and Young People highlighted that poverty impacts on children and young people’s relationships and sense of belonging, as well as their opportunities to have fun, be independent and participate in their community:
Children and young people describe how the pressures of having ‘no food’, ‘no water’ or ‘no electricity and gas’ can lead to ‘less connection with their family’, whether due to parents being stressed or needing to work constantly. It also affects friendships, with children being too embarrassed to have friends over due to the state of their home.
… Beyond impacts on learning, poverty also has impacts on how young people see themselves in the present as well as their aspirations for the future. Not having clothes, toys, digital devices or access to the internet or period products, sets them apart from their peers and are significant barriers to their participation at school, in social outings and extracurricular activities.
2.70Some submitters flagged that poverty can have particular social and cultural impacts on both multicultural and First Nations communities.
2.71Multicultural Australia noted that CALD communities, including migrants and refugees who are experiencing poverty, may be particularly vulnerable to social isolation and loneliness due to:
isolation from family and support networks;
racism, often coupled with stigma associated with poverty, disability and/or mental illness, leading to less favourable treatment of migrants and refugees in access to services, including rental accommodation, and leaving people vulnerable to not seeking help; and
lack of social capital and networks to support good employment outcomes, with many new arrivals lacking established relationships and family supports that are available to provide informal support and short-term accommodation options.
2.72Finally, Aboriginal Peak Organisations Northern Territory emphasised that it is vital to consider the impact of poverty on the ability of Aboriginal people to practice and share culture, and the Victorian Aboriginal Child Care Agency noted that that enduring discrimination, social exclusion and systemic inequality and inequity continue to drive the rates and experiences of poverty in Aboriginal families and communities to this day.
Committee view
2.73After listening to the lived experiences of people in poverty, as well as testimony from frontline service providers and other expert witnesses, it is clear that people living in poverty experience limitations in choiceand opportunity.
2.74The persistent and pervasive impacts of poverty prevent people from achieving their potential across all aspects of life, and can result in poorer housing, health, education, employment, social and cultural outcomes.
2.75The committee understands that all of these outcomes interact with one another and compound to create multiple layers of disadvantage. For example, lived experience testimonies highlighted that poverty can lead to poor housing, poor housing can lead to negative health outcomes, poor health can lead to poor educational outcomes, which can lead to reduced employment options or unemployment, and unemployment can lead to financial hardship, which can lead back to poor housing.
2.76These intersecting factors and their cumulative nature also explain how poverty can become perpetuated and entrenched across generations.
2.77Further, the committee remains acutely concerned that many cohorts who are already experiencing various forms of marginalisation in Australia, face additional structural barriers and overlapping forms of disadvantage in relation to poverty and financial hardship.
2.78Going forward, the committee intends to consider these outcomes, as well as potential solutions, in more depth as the inquiry progresses. The committee is also committed to keeping the lived experience of those living in poverty at the forefront of the inquiry as it believes that understanding the human impact of poverty on Australian individuals, families and communities is key to identifying solutions.