The Albanese government will relax some of the requirements imposed on job seekers as a condition for their income support, with changes expected to prevent about 1m welfare payment suspensions every year.
Changes to the mutual obligations scheme, contained in the federal budget, will ease the rules that govern when a person’s payments are suspended, meaning job seekers will have a five-day grace period – rather than 48 hours – to account for missing employment services appointments and other activities before their income support is cut off.
