Life on Newstart in the Bega Valley, locals say its time to 'Raise the Rate'

When you are working full-time, $40 doesn’t seem like much. You might spend it on pizza to take home for dinner after a busy day, a few rounds of beer in the pub or to go to a gig or a movie on the weekend.

On Newstart, $40 is your whole daily allowance and must be stretched to cover everything from basics like food to car insurance, clothing, transport and technology and communication.

It’s the growing gap between Australia’s working population and those on government payments which makes the reality of living on such a small sum more insulting, according to a few Bega Valley residents shopping at Sapphire Community Pantry during Anti-Poverty Week.

“The only way to do it is to have an incredibly strict budget, I have an excel spreadsheet. The electricity bill alone is a ridiculous portion of your Newstart money,” says Barb Perry, of Tathra, who lived on Newstart for ten years before being promoted to an aged pension a few years ago.

“It felt like a big raise when I went from Newstart to the aged pension,” she says.

“You learn to make do,” pipes up Simon, from Bemboka, who runs Bits and Bones Amusement and says he’s been on Newstart and similar payments on and off for “about 50 years.”

Making do includes “living on both sides of the law,” Simon adds dryly.

As well as doing what he has to get by on a small living allowance, Simon donates his amusement park rides for community groups and volunteers his way of contributing and helping out.

A Bemboka resident, Sheryl was on Newstart in Canberra about thirteen years ago when she was single and raising two kids.

“It was hard then,” she says with a wry laugh “I survived by asking my parents for help. Every now and again, I’d ring mum and say – can you help? It’s nice because now she’s 80 and the tables have turned and she rings me for help.”

Although Sheryl’s experience is now out-of-date, she may well have been better off than someone in her situation are now.

Sapphire Community Pantry in Bega is lobbying for change as part of the ‘Raise the Rate’ campaign.

“Newstart was designed to help people when they are going through tough times. But it’s not working – the rate has not been increased in real terms for 25 years while living expenses have gone through the roof,” a Pantry spokesperson says.

The Australia-wide Raise the Rate campaign aims to increase Newstart and associated allowances by $75 per week, they say it would make for a more realistic living allowance in 2019.

Pantry volunteer Penny Mitchell is also the coordinator of Ricky’s Place, which offers free weekly meals in Bega.

“I’m on Newstart now and I’ve been on it on and off for about 10 years,” she says “I’ve got a good skill base and I get a lot of interviews, just not a lot of jobs.”

Penny says she has relyed on her parents to help her keep the house she owns in Bega.

“It’s crazy, isn’t it, to be 65 and relying on your parents financially. If it hadn’t been for my mother, I probably would have lost my house by now. I can see how easily poverty feeds into homelessness.”

While Penny says she sometimes feels like “a second-class citizen,” she says the shame around being on a payment is shifting as people acknowledge that there aren’t enough jobs.

“It was in my mid 50’s that I started to have difficulty getting jobs,” she says “someone is not going to get the jobs and it’s the people who are older, or who don’t have the experience, who’ll miss out.”

Places like Sapphire Community Pantry and Ricky’s Place really help and meeting others are in the same boat, says Penny.

“I don’t know how people who don’t have help from outside survive on Newstart,” she says.

Penny stays busy with her volunteer jobs, Barb will continue to follow her strict budget and Simon is heading home to work on a popcorn and fairy floss trailor that might earn him a bit of spending money.

“Not having money to pay bills frightens the living daylights out of me,” Barb says.

To find out more visit Raise the Rate.