Page 1612 - Week 05 - Thursday, 15 May 2014
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graduates and young people exiting foster care. Many young Canberrans will need to turn to their own support networks and community service providers for assistance for housing, food and other forms of aid.
Young people will be especially vulnerable to unsafe living conditions, as lack of financial security can be a significant contributor to women not leaving violent relationships and environments.
Young people aged 22 to 30 will be required to move to higher employment areas if they are unable to find unemployment after a 12-month period. This will see a number of young people from the region forced to move to Canberra, putting additional strain on the community.
Changes to the eligibility thresholds for family tax benefits A and B will hurt many families. This will increase the pressure on women to return to work after having children or the pressure for more hours a week. It will also affect the retention of foster carers who are also eligible for family tax benefit A. Changes to family tax benefit B will see 15,000 Canberra residents receive less government support to raise their families. The pausing of indexation on family tax benefits will mean that income support will not match increased living costs, putting further pressure on young families.
The single parents allowance will replace the schoolchildren’s bonus, to provide $750 per annum for each child aged between six and 12 years. However, many low-income families with two parents also struggle to meet the costs of sending their children to school. In addition, no funding has been allocated to single-parent or dual-parent families to assist with the cost of sending high school aged children to school, which is significantly more expensive than primary school education.
Combined with reduced spending on education, which is likely to increase the out-of-pocket expenses for families sending their children to school, these changes will increase the pressure on household budgets. They may contribute to a reduction in student retention rates for disadvantaged families.
The deregulation of course fees and greater contributions by students accessing the higher education loans program and HECS have been introduced. Students will have to start paying back loans sooner, with interest charged on outstanding debts increased. Increased cost of tuition for students will be likely to increase places for wealthier students while decreasing overall access to higher education and increasing the proportion of students accessing HELP to cover the initial cost of tuition. In the end, this will produce significant cost pressures for all domestic university students.
Tools for your trade payments will cease from 1 July 2014 and a trade support loan program will be introduced. Apprentices will be required to commence repaying loans when their income exceeds a minimum repayment threshold of $53,345 in 2014-15, consistent with arrangements applying to university students under HELP. The loss of tools for trade will have a significant impact, yet the introduction of trade support loans will reduce barriers for some apprentices to access training, as it allows additional financial incentives to undertake qualifications that lead to occupations on the national skills list.
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