Households relying on government payments have recorded the sharpest quarterly rise in living costs, according to new data from Australian Bureau of Statistics.
The Selected Living Cost Index has shown essential expenses are continuing to put pressure on tight budgets. The indexes rose 2.5 per cent for pensioner and beneficiary, age pensioner, and other government transfer recipient households in the March quarter, compared with a rise of 1.4 per cent for employee households and 1.1 per cent for self-funded retiree households.
The March quarter marks the largest rise on record for pensioner and beneficiary households, and the sharpest increase for age pensioner and other government transfer recipient households since the September 2000 quarter.
Housing, health, and transport have been the main contributors to cost-of-living increases.
Electricity costs rose as extended Commonwealth Energy Bill Relief Fund rebates were used up, while medical and pharmaceutical costs also increased after Medicare and PBS safety-net thresholds reset at the start of the year.
Transport costs have risen across all household types after March fuel prices increased due to conflict in the Middle East.
Centrelink and NDIS recipient Aspen Robson said fuel, groceries, and medical care have changed their weekly budget.
“Even a small price rise often means I need to reassess how critical something is, whether it’s essential, or if I can find something else in my budget I can forego in its place,” Robson said.
Robson said they check FuelMap before filling up, and plan grocery shopping around sale periods. A car service has also been delayed, along with several medical appointments.
“There’s a bit of a list when it comes to medical care I’ve been putting off due to the cost too. I’ve had to shift my metric to ‘once it’s critical, then I’ll get to it’,” Robson said.
Australian National University economic and social researcher Ben Phillips told the ABC earlier this year that the data was more positive for employee households, but different for pensioners and welfare recipients.
“That’s probably mainly driven by electricity costs increasing fairly sharply with the rebates coming off through the course of the year,” Dr Phillips said.
The Economic Inclusion Advisory Committee has called for working-age payments to be increased, recommending JobSeeker and related payments to be lifted toward 90 per cent of the Age Pension over four years, alongside an increase in Commonwealth Rent Assistance.
“Increasing the rate of working-age payments to improve economic inclusion – this is the Committee’s top priority and repeats calls made in previous reports.”
The ABS data compares quarterly and annual living cost changes across five household types, as well as the expenditure categories contributing to those changes.
“It becomes more than just managing your financial budget, you have an ever-increasing load of time and energy to budget as well,” Robson said.
