Amidst the release of a Government committee report saying boosts to jobseeker are urgently needed, our region's biggest welfare body has chimed in with their views. 

However, the Albanese Government looks set to keep unemployment benefits at their current level. 

The treasurer, Jim Chalmers, and social services minister, Amanda Rishworth, recently released the interim economic inclusion committee report, which said Jobseeker payments are at "such an inadequate level that they create a barrier to paid work." 

Megan Boshell, our Area Manager for Mission Australia in Dubbo, told the Western Plains App, "Income support payments aren't enough to keep people out of poverty. We know from the work we do in the community that people living on income support had difficulty getting medication and medical care, ate less or skipped meals, and almost all living in private rentals experience rental stress". 

Boshell told the Western Plains App "The upcoming federal budget is a chance for the Government to follow the advice of the Economic Inclusion Advisory Committee and lift income support payments.

Mission Australia calls for an increase of at least $76 a day. The Government should also increase Commonwealth Rent Assistance payments by 50%.  

Image: Economic Inclusion Advisory Committee. 

"Doing so will help people, at the very least, afford a roof over their heads, food on the table, and receive medical care and medicine that they need – the bare essentials". 

The Economic Inclusion Committee, chaired by former federal minister Jenyy Macklin, said in its report it supported the view that "income support recipients with sufficient support to ensure a basic standard of living in line with community standards" 

It argues that "Indexing JobSeeker Payment and related income supports only in line with the consumer price index has resulted in their relative base rates falling significantly below existing benchmarks such as the Age Pension. Therefore, increasing their rate to 90 percent of the Age Pension would improve the adequacy and return them to payment relativities of 1999." 

The base rate of jobseeker is $693.10 a fortnight for a single person with no children, or $49.50 a day, compared with the pension, which is worth $971.50 a fortnight or $69.40 a day. 

The Government agreed to establish the Economic Inclusion Advisory Committee through a deal with ACT Senator David Pocock in exchange for his support of their industrial relations laws. 

Its role is to advise the Government on welfare matters before every budget. 

Treasurer Jim Chalmers had been sitting on the report for weeks before finally releasing it on April 18. The report details $34 billion in recommendations to boost the dole, help single parents, and increase rental assistance. To put that in some perspective, taxpayers spent $24 billion in last year's budget on nation-wide aged care. 

Critics of the Committee's ideas say that a period of high inflation and ballooning budget costs means now is not the time to boost jobseeker. Others point out that the rise is not costed, and there are no suggestions of any tax rises or budget cuts to fund it. 

The indications are that the Government is unlikely to boost the jobseeker.

However, a statement from Chalmers and Rishworth in response to the Committee said they would provide support "where it is responsible and affordable to do so, and weighed up against other priorities and fiscal challenges" and they "can't fund every good idea".