Support payments increase welcomed

FEDERAL Member for Bendigo, Lisa Chesters, welcomed recent changes to income support programs. 

Speaking at Bendigo Family Financial Services, Ms Chesters said the base rate of several social security payments increased as per the Federal budget 2023-24. 

She said the increases will help support those most vulnerable in the community. 

“It’s hard to say how to fix cost of living pressures,” she said. “What we’re trying to do is address, for this demographic, the exact cost of living pressures. 

“This is cost-of-living relief for all of our people on fixed incomes that are really struggling. We’ll keep working with the sector, and we’ll keep reviewing it. 

“For all our other payments, they’ll be indexed at a higher rate than what they usually get, because inflation and CPI continues to be high.” 

Bendigo Family Financial Services general manager Jenny Elvey said the increases were a start but more needs to be done. 

In the past six months, she said her organisation has seen a 20 to 30 per cent increase in clients, mostly in the financial counselling program.  

“We’ve got an increase in clients presenting at the moment that are struggling with putting food on the table, paying bills, house payments, rentals,” said Ms Elvey. 

“We welcome all these changes, we know that we’re still going to see clients that are struggling because of all these other increases. 

“But we do welcome these changes as giving them a little bit of breathing space so that we can keep working with them and try and make it a bit easier for them.”