As a result of the government’s latest budget, low-income families will lose thousands of dollars of disposable income per year, while the top 30 per cent of Australian families will be less affected.
Despite the 2015 Budget being promoted as a fairer version of its 2014 predecessor, figures from the National Centre for Social and Economic Modelling (NATSEM) reveal otherwise.
The research, undertaken at the University of Canberra and commissioned by the Labor Party, has shown that some of the lowest-income Australian families could lose up to 7.1 per cent of their total disposable income by 2018-19. This will occur as a direct result of the 2015 Budget.
Under measures from the new budget, which include cuts to family tax benefits, the NATSEM figures showed that low-income families could lose $70 per week, around $3734 per year by 2015-16. Additionally, by 2018-19 losses had risen to $118.50 per week and $6165 per year.
The research was disclosed just days after the Australian Council of Social Service (ACOSS) data, which found that due to the 2015 Budget, low-income earners in Australia will lose $15 billion over four years.
Comparatively, families living on incomes of more than $120,000 per year will be almost completely unaffected, with a loss of just 0.2 per cent on their disposable income.
The NATSEM data took into account a range of household changes handed down in the latest budget, including increased childcare benefits, reinstated indexation of petrol and the cuts to family tax benefits. However, it did not include possible changes to higher education currently being discussed by the government.
Read more at The Guardian.