The Australian Coalition government has announced it will collect an extra A$2bn over the next four years by cracking down on welfare and pension recipients. Treasurer Scott Morrison said the savings would offset the A$1.2bn in election spending announced in recent weeks, plus A$300m in other savings, leaving the budget bottom line A$1.1bn better than before the campaign.
Mr Morrison said the vast majority of welfare recipients do the right thing and need not worry. The reforms aim to cut red tape, minimise mistakes, and better target fraud. No one who genuinely needs support and honestly discloses their income will be worse off, he said. There are around 270,000 former recipients who owe more than A$870m and are not making adequate effort to repay.
The Australian Council of Social Services chief executive, Cassandra Goldie, warned the crackdown could cause hardship if it created a more aggressive debt recovery approach. She said taking more money out of income support was the wrong place to find savings, especially with Newstart payments frozen for two decades.
Sarah Saunders of National Seniors said people resent being treated as ripping off the system. She highlighted poor Centrelink phone service, with 13.7m calls blocked in 2013–14, and warned that age pensioners are angry over tightening of the assets test, which may push 100,000 off the pension.
