GAWLER’S social support charities are preparing for an influx of people needing assistance, after the coronavirus supplement for welfare payments was slashed on Sunday.

At the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in March, the Federal Government introduced the $550 fortnightly coronavirus supplement, which effectively doubled the rate of the existing Newstart – now JobSeeker – social welfare payment to $1100 a fortnight.

The supplement also applies to Youth Allowance, Austudy and a number of other Centrelink-administered payments.

As reported in The Bunyip in August, the local Spence electorate is receiving the highest amount of the coronavirus supplement in Australia, with 29,060 people receiving $16.2 million in one July fortnight.

From Sunday though, the payment boost was cut to $250 per fortnight, meaning someone receiving the maximum amount of JobSeeker each fortnight will now claim $800.

This will see around 18,000 people in Gawler and the northern suburbs now receiving JobSeeker fall below the Henderson Poverty Line, which sits at approximately $850 a fortnight for a single adult.

Gawler-Riverside Salvation Army Officer Major Darren Cox anticipated an influx of locals accessing financial and food support from his charity, and others like it in Gawler, as they are pushed below the poverty line.

He said the height of the pandemic had been relatively quiet for support services due to the increased JobSeeker rate, but he now expected to see more people needing support.

“We are very concerned about the cliff edge that’s coming,” Mr Cox said.

“This area is one of the highest uptakes of JobSeeker and JobKeeper in Australia and we know there’s going to be a lot of people impacted by that.

“Everyone is preparing for a difficult season for a lot of people – financially more than anything.”

Vinnies Gawler president Val Duffield echoed Mr Cox, saying extra donations and volunteer support would likely be needed to meet the community’s demands.

“Our numbers (of people Vinnies supports) are currently down by 50 per cent, but we’re seeing it increase as people become anxious about what they’re going to do in the future when the payments are cut,” she said.

“Receiving the supplement has been a big difference because they (people receiving JobSeeker) have been able to manage their finances and pay their bills.

“Until you’ve walked in their shoes you don’t know the circumstances of people (receiving JobSeeker).”

In August, 16,300 people in the Playford Council region were receiving social support payments, which equated to 17 per cent of the population.

During the same time period, 2400 Gawler residents – nine per cent of the council area’s population – were receiving some form of payments.

Both Mrs Duffield and Mr Cox called on the JobSeeker payment to be permanently increased post-pandemic, saying the supplement had shown how much unemployed people needed to live comfortably.

“Newstart was never enough, even before COVID-19, for people to cope with a living wage and to settle anxieties, make ends meet and provide for children who are involved,” Mr Cox said.

“For the small amount (of money) for each individual to take them out of that stress and anxiety would provide a lot of hope.”

The coronavirus supplement is set to be phased out altogether at the end of the year, with the Federal Government yet to commit to a raise to the base Newstart rate.

Labor has called for the full $550 supplement to be extended and has announced it would raise Newstart if it wins the next election, but is yet to commit to what that increase would be.

Speaking in Adelaide last week, human services minister Anne Ruston said Australia needed to move away from “blanket levels of support”.

“Clearly we had to put in place very, very broad measures when we found out the pandemic was going to hit back in March,” she said.

“And so we put a blanket over the economy to provide the supports for all Australians to get through.

“On Friday and Monday, this is our first stage of a step down to try to move away from just blanket levels of support to provide additional incentives into the market place, to try and recreate a good balance between the levels of support that people clearly need in this absolutely once in a century pandemic, but also we need to incentivise people to get back into the market.”