The latest estimates of Australian household income, wealth and costs show clearly that if you want to reduce the level of financial pain for low incomes, raising jobseeker works.
You would not expect that the financial stress of low-income households would fall, nor that their income would rise, during a recession.
And yet that is what the latest household financial survey from the Australian Bureau of Statistics shows occurred, due to the $550 per fortnight coronavirus supplement that was being paid up till 24 September 2020.
The only ones really to see a drop in real gross income were the richest 20%, which is not surprising as their income is more likely to be based on rental incomes and equity holdings.
But do not worry too greatly for them – their net worth rose quite nicely, as it did for most households as property values rose and liabilities fell.
But while this points to the economy not collapsing completely during the recession, what is most revealing within the survey are the indicators of financial stress and the government’s two main responses to the pandemic.
For workers, the jobkeeper payments were the most crucial; while for others the jobseeker supplement was key.
