Affordable rental properties few and far between for welfare recipients

A new report has revealed a severe lack in affordable rental properties for welfare recipients – even with a temporary doubling of the JobSeeker allowance. Just 1.5 per cent of rental listings across the country are affordable for a person on JobSeeker, formerly known as Newstart.

Rental properties are hard to find for welfare recipients Source: Getty

When Canberra mother Amber Jarrett's relationship broke down last year, she couldn't afford to rent somewhere for herself and her three children.

The family was couch-surfing  - sometimes at three different places a week.  

The coronavirus pandemic has brought forward a number of social issues, shining a light on those who were struggling, even before the economy hit a wall.

 A snapshot of rental affordability by Anglicare Australia shows there's a chronic shortage of affordable rentals for those on minimum wage and government payments. A survey of nearly 70,000 rental listings in Australia found only nine were affordable for those on the previous Newstart payments of $550 a fortnight. And none of those properties were in the major cities.

Since that's been doubled to the new JobSeeker payment of $1100 a fortnight, a person can still afford only about a thousand of the rentals analysed.