Unemployed Australians and single parents are revealed as the biggest winners from coronavirus - thanks to taxpayer-funded welfare boosts
- Member's Equity Bank analysed household financial comfort in first half of 2020
- Unemployed saw a 30 per cent boost in wellbeing thanks to JobSeeker doubling
- Single parents enjoyed a 13 per cent rise in financial comfort with welfare boost
The unemployed and single parents have been the biggest winners from the coronavirus crisis thanks to billions of dollars in welfare payment boosts, a report showed.
A Member's Equity Bank report analysed the financial comfort of different groups in Australia and gave them a score out of ten for the first half of 2020.
A doubling of the JobSeeker dole, with a temporary $550 a fortnight coronavirus supplement, was particularly beneficial to the unemployed with their financial wellbeing increasing by 30 per cent - albeit to a low score of 5.17 out of ten.
A Member's Equity Bank report analysed the financial comfort of different groups in Australia and gave them a score out of ten for the first half of 2020. A doubling of the JobSeeker dole, with a temporary $550 a fortnight coronavirus supplement, was particularly beneficial to the unemployed with their financial wellbeing increasing by 30 per cent - albeit to a low score of 5.17 out of ten. Pictured is a Centrelink queue on the Gold Coast in March 2020
Single parents enjoyed a 13 per cent increase in their comfort levels - but to a low score of 5.04 per cent out of ten.
By comparison, average Australian households saw their financial comfort levels increase by just three per cent to 5.76 out of ten in the six months to June 30.
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The poor did better, following the introduction of $1,500 a fortnight JobKeeper wage subsidies for workers in COVID-19-hit businesses.
Those earning less than $40,000 a year, a level barely above the full-time minimum wage, saw their comfort levels rise by 18 per cent to a still-low 5.15 out of ten.
Single parents enjoyed a 13 per cent increase in their comfort levels - but to a low score of 5.04 per cent out of ten. By comparison, average Australian households saw their financial comfort levels increase by just three per cent to 5.76 out of ten in the six months to June 30
Households with savings of less than $1,000 saw a 19 per cent increase in their financial wellbeing to 4.19 out of ten.
While poorer people were described as 'winners', the ME 'Household Financial Comfort Report' noted 'the overall level of financial comfort of single parents, the unemployed, and households with low comfort and low savings remains well below the average Australian household'.
These Australians would also be more financially at risk should the pandemic linger as government handouts were wound back.
'A significant proportion of households are vulnerable to a potential savings cliff,' the report said.
Younger Australians born from 1995 onwards were the biggest beneficiaries of JobSeeker, with 20 per cent of these Generation Z citizens getting the dole.
The boost to unemployment benefits cost taxpayers $17.5billion with this figure including a dilution in the coronavirus supplement from $550 to $250 a fortnight from September 25 until the end of 2020.
The $1,500 a fortnight JobKeeper wage subsidies cost $70billion under the first scheme running until September 27.
A scaled-back version is running until March next year, with full-time workers to receive $1,200 a fortnight until the end of the year which falls to $1,000 a fortnight from January.
Part-time workers putting in less than 20 hours will see their payments fall to $750 a fortnight from September 28 and to $650 a fortnight from the New Year.
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