Submission to: Senate Community Affairs References Committee This is a joint submission from FCA and the State/Territory financial counselling associations. Fairness should be the underpinning principle in decisions about the level of income support payments. We support an urgent increase in Newstart by at least $75 per week to ensure people
are more likely to be able to keep a roof over their heads and pay the household bills.
We support an independent review of the adequacy of income support payments and the introduction of an independent body to set such payments to ensure they remain adequate into the future.
Submission to: Senate Economics Committee Legislation first proposed by the Federal Government in October 2017 in relation to payday loans and consumer leases must be introduced urgently. People need strong consumer protections when using these high cost and potentially harmful products. The urgent reform needed is to cap the amount that a person can repay at 10% of net income.
