Welfare groups warn of higher unemployment due to JobKeeper cut

Both JobSeeker and JobKeeper payments have been reduced as 2.2 million Australians search for a job or more hours of work. Despite this, the Federal Government insists the economy "is opening up" in the aftermath of the COVID-19 recession.

Tom Adam, Founder of Canberra Martial Arts and Fitness V2 Source: SBS

The Federal Government is slowly phasing out its coronavirus pandemic support payments.

In the first week of January, hundreds-of-thousands of Australians had their JobKeeper payments reduced from $1200 a fortnight to $1000 per fortnight, for people working more than 20 hours per week.

For those with fewer hours of work, payments decreased from $750 to $650.

Australian business owners have benefited from the payment, like Tom Adam - the founder of Canberra Martial Arts and Fitness.

In October last year, his business got back on its feet and became no longer eligible for the support but he is now concerned about the longer-term impacts of a stop-start economy

Mr Adam says some areas of the country are more at risk than others, therefore the government should consider a case-by-case approach.

"I think it needs to be a little bit more of a case-by-case basis. If you look at some of the hospitality businesses in the North Shore of Sydney. A lot of those businesses are going to be really struggling right when the money is going to be taken out of the business and some of the other areas have been doing really well."

"So through the ACT, for example, we haven't got any real active cases are the moment, we don't really need it (the payment). Some of the other areas do. Some businesses that have been hit really, really hard through the period, really do need their support to continue and to be able to get back to reinvigorating their businesses to trade again."

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