Jobseeker should rise to $70 a day to ‘lift people out of poverty’ and back into work, Acoss says

While the jobless rate has dipped sharply in recent times, the number of people on long-term unemployment benefits remains high. Photograph: Mike Bowers/The Guardian

The Australian Council of Social Services will use this week’s jobs and skills summit to push for a hefty increase to jobseeker payments and new measures to get Australia’s 750,000 long-term unemployed people back into the workforce, including paid work trials.

Ahead of the summit, which begins on Thursday in Canberra, Acoss has revealed it will lobby government, business, unions and civil society to make full employment “the core goal” in a bid to reduce the social harms of joblessness. Tackling entrenched joblessness would remove “one of the biggest roadblocks” to hitting that target.