LOCAL FAMILIES TO BE HIT BY TAX BENEFIT CHANGES

Families, new mums, pensioners and young people across our region are all in the firing line as a result of the Turnbull Government’s latest rounds of harsh cuts.

Local Member for Oxley Milton Dick MP says these cuts really show how out of touch Mr Turnbull really is. “People are sick and tired of the Turnbull Government’s relentless cuts to their household budget,” Mr Dick said.  

There are 14,334 families in our local area who receive Family Tax Benefit Part A, of which many of whom will be worse off as a result of this latest cut. This is in addition to 11,477 families who will lose $354 as a result of the abolition of the Family Tax Benefit Part B End of Year Supplement.”

As part of their proposed cuts, Malcolm Turnbull and the Coalition want to:

• Cut Family Tax Benefits – the Government has admitted that these cuts will leave 1.5 million families worse off. For example a typical family with two children and an income of $60,000 will be $750 worse off per year.

• Cut the Energy Supplement to pensioners, people with disability, carers and Newstart recipients. Scrapping the Energy Supplement to new pensioners will be a cut of $14.10 per fortnight to single pensioners or $365 a year. Couple pensioners will be $21.20 a fortnight worse off or around $550 a year worse off.

• Force young jobseekers to wait five weeks for Newstart - Malcolm Turnbull wants young jobseekers to wait five weeks before they can access Newstart. Young people under the age of 25 will be left with nothing to live on for five weeks. 

• Cut support to Young People – Young people aged between 22 and 24 will be pushed from Newstart on to Youth Allowance, losing around $48 a week, or almost $2,500 a year.

• Cuts to Paid Parental Leave - 70,000 new mums will have their Paid Parental Leave cut by an average of $5,600.

• Scrap the Pensioner Education Supplement and Education Entry Payment.

• Cuts to migrant pensioners - who spend more than six weeks overseas visiting family and friends. Currently, pensioners can stay overseas for 26 weeks and receive their full pension.  Following that time, the pension is reduced to a rate that depends on the number of years they have resided in Australia. Mr Turnbull’s cuts mean that after just 6 weeks overseas, pensioners who lived in Australia for less than 35 years will have the rate of their pension cut.

“Mr Turnbull says he wants to help families with the cost of living but he’s slashing support to local families.

“$750 might not sound like much to Malcolm Turnbull, but for local families that makes a big difference,” said Mr Dick.

“He wants rip money from the pockets of ordinary families and at the same time give a $50 billion handout to big business. He just doesn’t get fairness.”

Labor will always to stand up for Australian families by protecting them from these harsh Liberal cuts.