Last Year the Prime Minister of Australia launched a scheme for the uplifting the social and economical condition of the citizens with providing them several cost of living payments in July 2023. This cost of living payment benefited the citizens in various walks of life. It provided financial coverage to the families in child raising, energy bill relief, medicine and health care, income support and housing, wages and employment, education and for small businesses to the eligible ones. As of now in 2024, there has not been any cost of living payment announced for the Australians. But you can expect in a while because the rumors are making circulations about the payments, so stay updated regarding the Centrelink Cost of Living changes.
Centrelink Cost of Living Changes in 2024?
Since March 2023 to March 2024, the cost of living indexes have changed with an increase between .7% and 1.7%. All the five indexes have changed slightly in March 2024. And now the Centrelink payments are affected by the cost of living changes. The indexes witnessed an increase ranging from 1.7% to .7%. Over the period of 12 months, the cost of living indexes have increased around 3.3% to 6.5%. Due to rise in mortgage interest rates, the employee households have witnessed strongest annual rise. From health to insurance to financial services to food and non alcoholic beverages contributed in the rise in the index prices. The prices of all these products contributed in the highest increase of up to 6.5%.
- Self funded retirees
- Pensioner and beneficiary
- Age pensioners
- Other government transfer recipient
- Employee
The self funded retirees LCI (living cost index) rose by .7% between March 2023 and March 2024. While the pensioner and beneficiary LCI has grown by 1.3% in the same period. Whereas the employees LCI has grown by 1.7% which is the highest in all the five categories. The age pensioners LCI witnessed an increase about 1.1% in 2023 to 2024. And the other government transfer recipient LCI grew by 1.4% in the period of 12 months.
Centrelink Cost of Living Changes Overview
| Title | Cost of Living Changes in 2024 |
| Reported by | Australian Bureau of Statistics |
| Maximum Increase | 1.7% |
| Minimum Increase | .7% |
| Period | From March 2023 to March 2024 |
| Official Website | www.abs.gov.au. |
The Self Funded Retiree Households
This section recorded the smallest percentage of rise in the living cost of index prices. The reasons behind is the fall in holiday travel and accommodation due to peak seasons being in December. The retirees depend for the income on the superannuation or property income for the expenses. And major portion of that goes to the holiday travel. But the significant fall in international holidays reduced the rise in prices.
The self funded retirees also have least amount of expenses in mortgage interest rates which are quite higher for other categories.
Employee Household LCI
The employee household’s living cost index prices rose the highest due to increase in mortgage interest rates. The primary source of income for this is either salary or wages while the LCI rose by 1.7% which was 1.1% in December last year. The mortgage interests make up for the maximum proportion for the expenses in the employee households. Apart from the mortgage interest, education also made for rise in prices. The cost of education rose by 5.8% in 2024 driven by the higher school fees for primary and secondary education changes.
Other Government Transfer Recipient and Age Pensioners
The major factor for the rise in cost of living for the other government transfer recipient and age pensioners is the increase in expenses of medical care and pharmaceutical expenses. The medical care and other health care related expenses contributed in the rise of the prices. The rise in pharmaceutical expenses was led by the reduction in subsidy for the pharmaceutical benefit schemes and Medicare safety net.
The pensioners recorded a rise about 1.3% which was 1.0% in the previous year. And the rise in medical care facility expenses was offset by the energy bill subsidy and concessions for households in the previous year.
Cost of Living Relief
In 2023, the cost of living relief for the families was expanded from covering the children of age 8 to then covering children till the age of 14. For the first child, the childcare subsidy was lifted pup to 90% so that the parents can work more freely and left the barriers behind. They were also provided paid parental leave to support the child care and income of individual families.
The energy bill relief was provided to 5 million households of sum $500 and $650 to the small businesses. The aim of the increase in energy bill reliefs was to protect the Australians from worst impact of energy price increase.
Health care and Medicare benefits such as medicines, checkups and other diagnosis payments were provided to the eligible individual so offset the cost of living expenses.
Income support through jobseeker payment, AUstudy, youth allowance and various other financial supports was provided to the youngsters to offset the cost of living increase.
The government released around $2 billion for the housing facility for the citizens and the ones meeting the eligibility criteria got the payments for the housing accommodation. 50,000 new houses were allocated to the eligible ones.
Minimum wage workers received 8.6% total increase in the pay rise while the aged care workers got access to 15% pay rise since July 2023. Along with the minimum wage increase, the jobseeker and other income support payments was increased by $40 per fifteen days.
Above discussed are the Centrelink Cost of Living changes in 2024 and the following were the cost of living reliefs since July 2023.
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