Young Aussies Have Had a Big Increase to Their Welfare Payments in the New Year

You could be earning up to $1000 more every year.

As 2023 got underway, students got a big win.

After being announced by the federal government in early December, youth and student payments have gone up by more than six percent.

Under the new rise, recipients of Youth Allowance will see their payments increase between $19.10 and $41.40 a fortnight, and recipients of Austudy will receive increases of between $32.40 to $41.40 a fortnight.

That means a student or young person looking for work on Youth Allowance might see their yearly rate increase by as much as $1076.

Minister for Social Services Amanda Rishworth said the increase will be a major help to young people amidst an increasing cost of living.

“This will have a significant impact on the hip pockets of young people who are either studying, looking for work or receiving the Disability Support Pension if they are under 21 and don’t have children,” she said in December.

The latest increase is the highest rise in the 25 years since Youth Allowance began.

Why has the government increased the rates?

This didn’t just come out of nowhere.

The increase in youth payments is actually an ‘indexation’, which basically means a review into social service payments in line with inflation, cost of living and other factors.

With living costs rising over the past year in a big way, the government was keen to get students and young Australians earning more money in 2023.

The new rate has come in alongside a host of other new services and programs in the new year, including cheaper medicines, 180,000 fee-free TAFE places, tens of thousands of apprenticeships and university places and much more.

Is it all sunshine and rainbows?

Not quite – the increase is good for students and young people, but some people are saying more needs to be done.

The National Union of Students (NUS) has argued that the majority of students are locked out of Youth Allowance, as payments are only given to students older than 22, and when they are included, are paid much less.

"Students are paying tax and held accountable under the law as adults. At the same time, they are not being paid the same rate or able to access social security payments until they turn 22," the union argued, suggesting that the limitations are “aged-based discrimination”.

Some have also said the allowance increase, although is a good step, still doesn’t meet all the demands of cost of living increases like rent and groceries.

Youth Allowance is also managed differently to other welfare payments like jobseeker, in that it’s indexed just once a year.

Other payments are analysed twice a year, meaning there’s more opportunities to meet specific demands of the year.

But, as the new rates have come in, they’ve given young people a good start to 2023, and hopefully, more of those needs can be met throughout the year.