'Always thinking can I make ends meet, is awful'

Date
    May 2, 2014 - 11:13PM


When Terry Barnes - the former Abbott adviser who recommended that everyone be charged a co-payment to see a GP - jumped on Melbourne radio on Friday and described his proposed $6 fee as ‘‘the cost of a couple of cups of coffee’’ Lorraine Bradford sighed.

To her, his claim that ''we are not talking about a great deal of money here'' illustrates how hardline economic proposals are dished up by people whose understanding of how the poor live is vague at best.      

A single mother, Ms Bradford's life was first turned upside down in 2012 when the federal government scrapped the single parenting payment for people with children aged eight and over. She was moved onto Newstart and forced to sell the Carrum Downs home that she owned with her brother because she couldn’t keep up with repayments.      

''It was so difficult. I wondered whether, as a single mum with two children, I would even be able to find a place to rent,'' she says.

The changes proposed in the Commission of Audit would be a further blow. Bradford works four part-days a week in administration at Chelsea Heights Community Centre and rents a three-bedroom unit in Seaford for $335 a week.

Her weekly income varies depending on how many hours she works, but on average she receives $60-a-fortnight Newstart payment. More than half goes to rent and the remainder is quickly absorbed by bills and groceries. But her Newstart payment would be cut altogether under tougher income testing proposed by the commission. The difference, the 50-year-old says, would be ''food on the table'' for her and her sons Dylan, 17, and Liam, 15.

Under the commission recommendations she would also face higher medical expenses - as a concession card holder, $5 extra per doctors visit rather than the full $15 rate it proposes. But it wouldn't mean giving up a coffee: Ms Bradford says having a coffee at a cafe is already a luxury she can't afford. She mostly sips from a mug of instant Nescafe. ''I don’t have cups of coffee when I go out because I can’t afford it,'' she says.

She says comments such as  Mr Barnes’ reflect a lack of empathy for those most affected by a disturbing shift in economic policy that will be hardest on Australia’s most vulnerable residents.      

Ms Bradford believes any Medicare co-payment would be too much. ''The thought of paying for doctors when it is always just a struggle, always thinking can I make ends meet, is awful.''

The Commission of Audit has also proposed tougher income testing for Newstart, dropping the earnings cap from $25,000 a year to $19,000 a year before access to the allowance is cut off. The change would mean Ms Bradford would lose her allowance. ‘‘It’s food on the table, really,’’ she says.


Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/always-thinking-can-i-make-ends-meet-is-awful-20140502-zr3ge.html#ixzz30bkEb1Cw

50 years old, and no marketable skills, talents or niches.  Let's just hope her children aren't as useless, though the fact that they're both old enough to work and chip in, but don't, seems to suggest the apple doesn't fall far from the tree.

... wrote on May 3^rd, 2014 at 11:50am:


tad harsh aren't you? you try raising 2 kids on your own.

Grappler Racist Filth wrote on May 3^rd, 2014 at 12:55pm:



Why, exactly?

Have you not read any of his previous posts?

Bobby that is the most pertinent post/video relevant to what is going on in our society today.

Pity George Carlin has now left us.

Although I can imagine that if he was still alive & espousing these truths .... they would find a way to snuff him out just like many others that have stood up & voiced their opinions as to who's controlling what in our world.

Gnads wrote on May 3^rd, 2014 at 9:03pm:



the most pertinent post/video relevant to what is going on in our society today.

It's perfect -
the Wall street bankers & all the super fund owners here etc
are all doing very well - the Govts. looked after them
thank you very much.

... wrote on May 3^rd, 2014 at 9:51pm:


and who takes care of the kids?

The Heartless Felon wrote on May 4^th, 2014 at 7:54am:



They are trying otherwise they wouldn't be meeting their Centrelink mutual obligations.

It is now 72 weeks average time for the youth and unemployed until they find employment. Many of the older unemployed give up before the 72 weeks is reached whereas youth have their youthful optimism that keeps most of them going.

In some areas there is 40% youth unemployment and it is evident that our government has no idea how to address this growing problem, except to put the blame back onto the unemployed.

What do you say to the kids in Spain and Greece ? their economy has failed, it's not their fault, same, same here.

It is not the fault of the unemployed that their consecutive governments have failed them.