MERCURY TODAY: Almost 25% near poverty

How many of these were created by excessive government charges and taxes and rates boosted by waste and losses?

Bewildered


Almost 25% near poverty
  BRUCE MOUNSTER   |   October 15, 2012 12.01am

MORE than 70,000 Tasmanians, or almost 14 per cent of the state's
population, are officially classed as living in poverty.

Poverty Report 2012, released yesterday by the Australian Council of
Social Service at the start of National Anti-Poverty Week, also found
Tasmanians are among those at greatest risk of falling into poverty.

Tasmanian Council of Social Service chief executive Tony Reidy said
the latest statistics taken in 2009-10 showed a widening gap between
Tasmania, with a 13.7 per cent poverty rate, and the rest of
Australia, with an average of 12.8 per cent.

Mr Reidy said just as alarming was the 24 per cent of Tasmanians
living below, or only slightly above, the poverty line, set at 50 per
cent of the median income, or $358 a week for single adults, or $752
for a couple with two children.

He said many Tasmanians could have been tipped over the edge by
soaring food, water, energy and transport costs.

Mr Reidy said the Tasmanian situation was exacerbated by a rapidly
ageing population and a high 7 per cent unemployment rate, causing 34
per cent of Tasmanians to depend on Commonwealth benefits compared
with 23 per cent nationally.

"Another major factor is the number of sole parent families. Nearly 25
per cent of Tasmanians under 15 live in a single-parent home. In many
of those households, the parent may have a reasonable income but their
capacity to afford essential items is affected by factors like the
high cost of renting a home ... on one income," he said.

Mr Reidy said it was unacceptable for Tasmanians who found themselves
unemployed through no fault of their own, to be abandoned.

He said welfare organisations were calling on the Federal Government
to raise the Newstart allowance from a sub-poverty $492 a fortnight.

Mr Reidy said TasCOSS applauded the State Government's allocation of
$3 million for emergency bill relief in an effort to keep crisis-hit
families on their feet but more was needed.