ACOSS wants Baby Bonus and Schoolkids Bonus scrapped.        

    Jessica Irvine
    News Limited Network
    April 19, 2013 12:00AM


THE Baby Bonus and Schoolkids bonus should be axed and paid through the family tax benefits system instead, the Australian Council of Social Services says.    

Streamlining Australia's "ramshackle and complex system" of family payments should be a top priority in the May budget, according to a pre-budget submission by ACOSS, to be released today.

Families would still receive the money, but it would be paid as an increase to the Family Tax Benefit Part A to ensure it is best targeted at low and middle-income families.    

"We do not regard family payments for middle income families as an undesirable form of `middle-class welfare'," the submission says.

"Yet in recent years, the family payment system has strayed from its primary purpose of preventing child poverty and has increasingly been used for purposes that are not well targeted, such as the Baby Bonus and Schoolkids Bonus."    

Labor's Schoolkids Bonus, which the Coalition has vowed to scrap if elected, has added additional complexity to an already unwieldy system, according to ACOSS.

At present, the baby bonus is $5000, but will be reduced to $3000 for subsequent births from July 1, 2013.

The Schoolkids bonus is paid out as $410 a year for each primary student ($205 paid in January and $205 paid in July) and $820 a year for each secondary student ($410 paid in January and $410 paid in July).

"If low and middle-income families are struggling with increased child related costs, the best and simplest way for Government to help is simply to increase the maximum rate of Family Tax Benefit A and then to index it properly. Parents could then decide whether to allocate their family payments to school costs or other more pressing needs," ACOSS says.

This would be a cost-neutral reform, according to ACOSS, because the money would still be paid, just in a different way.

The council has also called for the dole to be increased by $50 a week to better reflect the higher cost of living.

Ahead of the May budget, government MPs are urging the Treasurer to boost the Newstart allowance to address backlash from a controversial savings decision last year to push 84,000 single parents on to the dole when their youngest child turns eight.

Increasing the Newstart Allowance by $50 a week would cost $600 million in the coming financial year and $1.5 billion the following year, according to ACOSS.

This could be funded entirely through a crackdown on rich families using private trusts to avoid personal income tax obligations ($1 billion in 2014-15) along with a measure to crackdown on international companies avoiding tax by loading up their Australian entities with debt (saves $600 million in 2013-14 and $700 million in 2014-15).    

An increase of $50 a week would bring the Newstart allowance to $296 a week, still about $90 less than the single aged pension.

Read more: http://www.news.com.au/money/money-matters/acoss-wants-baby-bonus-and-schoolkids-bonus-scrapped/story-e6frfmd9-1226623834211#ixzz2QwhyrkpV

It will be interesting to see what happens on the budget day.    

Quote:


$100 a fortnight!? Geez, that's pretty good. Considering I do quite well out of what I get plus the well paid casual work that I do to supplement my dole. Bring it on.

Hmmm - it sounds good if the government roll all these things into one - but always be aware that when they sort of did this for pensioners, they also stipulated that if you were out of the co0untry, you lost your stake for utilities (as if your electricity access was suddenly not there any more somehow etc) and you could just suspend everything until you came home.

Always be wary of government and its moves - they will always find some loophole to make it look like an entitlement is no more than a privilege so they can remove it at any time.  Socio-fascism at its best.

Also - think how many poor little public servants would be out of a job if you made the tax system so much easier, and how very many would be forced to sit around offices all day and do nothing........

Let me put my views. 

The dole recipient is the outcome of successive poor policy decisions by government of both stamps. Therefore it is incumbent upon the government of the day to ensure that those persons so affected with the hopelessness of unemployment, should be adequately compensated for the government's own policies - which it claims to have pursued in the best interests of the country.

When policies offshore jobs and ruin job markets here - the Government should say:-  "Our policy is working - the country is working better now - and thank all of you who suffered and here is your minimum wage pension or unemployment benefit!"

As for pensions and unemployment benefits right now - how about some incentive to work - such as saying - OK, we do not reduce your benefit until your combined benefit plus income equal minimum wage, and that is partly as compensation for the policy decisions of the past and to assist you back into the workforce and give you some hope and incentive.

"Currently the full-time minimum wage is $15.96 per hour or $606.40 per week. This means that most employees in the national system shouldn't get less than this."

- http://www.fairwork.gov.au/pay/national-minimum-wage/Pages/default.aspx



ADDS:-  This level of income to those at the bottom would also stabilise the economy and make it thrive a bit.  Views on that are welcome.

(ponderous footnote):-  It would also cut out the current demand by the same government that wrecked the job markets to persecute those at the bottom who manage to somehow make a mistake and are thus now 'criminals' for 'defrauding the Commonwealth' - the same 'Common Wealth' that defrauded them of a fair chance in life and forced them to live like starving street waifs - which many are!

Life expectancies by country and years

http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SP.DYN.LE00.IN

SOB

Grappler Truth Teller Feller wrote on Apr 22^nd, 2013 at 10:01am:


I didn't say that I didn't report my casual work earnings.

Grappler Truth Teller Feller wrote on Apr 21^st, 2013 at 10:41pm:


I very much doubt weather $606.40 per week minimum per week would asstst any one back to work as Living expenses are now over $1000 per week.

We are all just Chacing our tails.