Join our daily newsletter At The Bell to receive exclusive market insights
- COVID-19 related support payments, JobSeeker and JobKeeper, are set to reduce further from January 1, 2021
- Australians on those two payments will soon have their benefits docked by $100 and $200 a fortnight, respectively
- The Federal Government announced the changes earlier in the year with both JobSeeker and JobKeeper to come to an end in March
- Labor is calling on the Morrison Government to extend the payments beyond March, as many Australians still remain jobless
- The government previously extended both payments for an additional six months back in September
Australians affected by COVID-19 will have their support payments further reduced in the New Year.
The JobKeeper and JobSeeker payments were introduced in March to help support the thousands of people left without jobs when the pandemic began.
Both payments have already been reduced in the past and the JobSeeker payment is set to drop $100 a fortnight while JobKeeper payment will drop $200 a fortnight.
That will bring the payment for JobSeeker to just $150 a fortnight and $1000 a fortnight for JobKeeper recipients.
The reduction in fortnightly payment amounts will come into effect from Friday, January 1, 2021, and its believed up to two million Australians will be affected.
At this stage, the Federal Government is planning to cut off the payments entirely at the end of March, 2021.
Opposition MP Bill Shorten has spoken out against the reduction and called for the government to extend the payments further.
“The problem is, in Australia, there is well north of a million people unemployed. There is just not the jobs out there at the moment,” he added.
“The other thing is, we are going to see more insolvencies next year in 2021. These cuts are just too tough,” the MP concluded.
The Morrison Government did previously extend the payments back in September when they were first due to expire.
However, at this stage, there has been no indication from the government that it will extend the payments beyond March.
“The government should reconsider it. For the less well off, we shouldn’t be cutting their circumstances at this point in time,” Bill Shorten said.
