Research shows low-income earners are paying more for basic everyday essentials
New research out today shows that Australians on lower incomes are paying more for basic essentials. An Anglicare Australia report compared six key cost of living factors, and found that people living on the poverty line often end up paying more because they can't afford to shop around or buy in bulk.
Transcript
00:00 Every area we looked at, we found what we called a poverty premium, where people on
00:05 lower incomes pay more. We looked at groceries and food, we looked at telecommunications
00:11 and data, credit and finance, transport, energy and insurance. And in every single one of
00:17 those, people paid more. And just a couple of quick examples, you know, in groceries,
00:23 we looked at that ability to have the money to buy up front, buy in bulk. We found a 93%
00:29 difference in bulk purchased toilet paper compared to, you know, a small pack. And when
00:36 we looked at something like car insurance, we looked at exactly the same car and insuring
00:41 it in a suburb that was in a low socioeconomic area versus a high socioeconomic area, and
00:47 we found a 61% difference. So this was right across the board of everything that we looked
00:52 at. There's thousands of people come every day to Anglicare services across the country.
00:57 And what this just shows us is it actually does cost to be poor. You know, people on
01:02 these low incomes, they're paying more for goods, and they have less choice. The market's
01:06 actually failing them right across all these essentials. The way out of this poverty premium
01:12 is to not have people living in poverty. The number one thing is to raise income support
01:17 payments above the poverty line, or even to be more radical and look at, you know, a permanent
01:23 basic income. But we need to get those payments up. We also need to look at a basic guaranteed
01:28 living wage. You know, people on the minimum wage working full time, they're not going
01:33 to have a lot left. Our own analysis shows after they've paid basic costs. And recently
01:38 we looked at rental costs for people in, you know, relatively middle professions in terms
01:44 of payments, like firefighters and teachers and nurses, and found that there was really
01:49 very little affordable. So we've got to look at those costs. But we also need to look at
01:54 other areas. And you know, the big one for us is tax and tax reform. We've still got
01:59 those stage three tax cuts on the paper there. We really could lose those. They're pushing
02:06 money to the richer end of town, and I mean town, they're moving money from regional areas.
02:12 And they're also taking $254 billion at the last count out of our ability to then spend
02:18 money on other things, like solar power for, you know, for poorer households, like things
02:25 like transport, like those moving to renewables. So there's a number of things that we need
02:29 to be looking at.
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