
Services Australia: Millions of Aussies on social services payments set for cash boost
From July 1, Services Australia payments will be indexed (adjusted in line with inflation) by 2.4 per cent.
Paid Parental Leave, Family Tax Benefit A and B, the Newborn Supplement, and Multiple Birth Allowance will all receive a modest increase, affecting about 2.4million Australians.
For example, a family receiving Family Tax Benefit A will pocket an extra $5 a fortnight.
Parents with triplets will receive an extra $120 a year, while first-time parents of a newborn child will pocket an additional $48 over 13 weeks.
Minister for Social Services Tanya Plibersek described indexation as a 'crucial way to help families when cost of living rises'.
'Millions of recipients of social security payments will see more money in their bank account,' Plibersek said.
However, asset limits and income thresholds will also increase by 2.4 per cent.
That means some Aussies will become ineligible for JobSeeker Payment, Youth Allowance, Austudy, ABSTUDY Living Allowance, Parenting Payment, Special Benefit and Parenting Payment Single.
The July indexation will not impact youth and student payments, which are indexed each year in January.
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The Independent
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Daily Mail
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Telegraph
5 hours ago
- Telegraph
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Ismaele La Vardera, an MP who campaigned against the barriers, said: 'This is a victory not just for Mondello but for all Sicilians, considering the effect it will have on the whole island.' In the southern region of Basilicata, police had to intervene in the town of Metaponto after a public beach was taken over by private beach club operators. Officers confiscated hundreds of sun loungers and umbrellas that had been illegally placed on the sand. At a beach called Spiaggia delle Monache near Naples, campaigners protested against a section being fenced off by private operators. At an exclusive beach club called Twiga, in Marina di Pietrasanta on the coast of Tuscany, activists stuck umbrellas in the sand as a way of symbolically reclaiming the beach. Some beach club operators have even illegally tried to charge people for the privilege of bringing their own food and drink onto the sand. 'In reality, all beaches should be free and there should be no cases in which people are denied access to the water's edge to have a swim,' says Massimo Melpignano, a lawyer from the consumer organisation Konsumer Italia. 'Beach clubs are permitted to manage a public asset and to charge people for the services they offer, but they cannot run the beach as if it was their private property.' In the north-western coastal region of Liguria, it is estimated that 70 per cent of beaches are now occupied by private clubs, campsites and resorts. In the northern region of Emilia Romagna, which has a long Adriatic coastline, the figure is 69.5 per cent, while in Campania, which includes Naples, Sorrento and the islands of Capri and Ischia, the proportion is 68 per cent. At some resorts, the proportion of the beach which remains free to access is as low as 3 per cent. 'A public asset is now in the hands of the private sector,' said Stefano Bigliazzi, who is the head of the regional branch of Legambiente, an Italian environmental organisation. Josi Della Ragione, the mayor of Bacoli on the coast west of Naples, has made a name for himself by standing up to bullying beach club operators. Fathers hand down these places Bacoli is renowned as a summer playground for Neapolitans. There is big money to be made, the resort can host up to 100,000 people a day during the summer. Mr Della Ragione was Italy's youngest mayor when he was first elected at the age of 28 and is now on his third term. He has campaigned tirelessly against rapacious beach club owners who regard the coast as their personal domain. 'Fathers hand down these places to their sons, grandfathers to their grandchildren. There has been a continual privatisation of beaches,' he told The Telegraph. He has ordered the removal of umbrellas and sun loungers on stretches which should be public and has authorised the demolition of buildings, walls and fences which were built without permission. 'All these things are obstructions which stop people from reaching the sea. In the last few years we have managed to return 10,000 square metres of beach to the public. And we have decreed that for every beach, at least 50 per cent should be accessible to the public. Right now, there are beaches where the freely accessible area is just 10-15 per cent of the total.' But he has clearly upset some powerful local interests. In April he was sent two letters, each containing a bullet. The case was referred to the police. But the mayor said: 'For too long, beach operators have used the coast for their own private gain. But I'm not giving up.'