Federal budget should have raised welfare payments amid cost-of-living crisis, recipients say

People on welfare have already cut back on so much, so further price rises for energy, rent and food are going to hit hard, advocates say. Photograph: Amer Ghazzal/Rex/Shutterstock

After months spent trying to stretch jobseeker payments amid a cost-of-living crisis, Paulene Hutton hoped for some relief in the budget. But there was none.

Instead she said she was coming to terms with the government’s estimate of a 50% increase in electricity prices by 2023-24 – an amount that would raise her power bill from an average of $350 a quarter to $525.