Australia’s increase in welfare payments ‘is just a Band-Aid’, say low-income earners

Ricki Spencer is on the disability support pension and receives commonwealth rent assistance and spends about 50% of her income on rent. Photograph: Penny Stephens/The Guardian

For Ricki Spencer, the cost of living announcements in Tuesday’s federal budget were disappointing.

Spencer, 54, receives the disability support pension (DSP) and lives in a private rental property in Melbourne. She receives the maximum rate of commonwealth rent assistance (CRA) – $157.20 to help with her $700 a fortnight rent – and will benefit from the 15% increase of the cap, announced by Labor as one of the key cost-of-living relief measures for low-income earners.