There are concerns that higher levels of financial and housing stress will be seen in central Victoria in the coming months as coronavirus supplements shrink.
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Currently people who receive certain income support payments - include JobSeeker, youth allowance and the parenting payment, among others - also get the fortnightly $550 supplement, introduced earlier this year.
However, from Wednesday, September 24 this will be cut by $300 to $250 per fortnight, and will cease on December 31.
Anglicare Victoria regional director Francis Lynch said the supplement, combined with the freeze on rent increases and the ability to negotiate reduced rent, had made it easier for some people to stay in their homes or find new ones.
This year, he said, Anglicare Victoria had locally seen about 10 per cent fewer people seek help than usual.
But he said there would be a "real crunch" in the coming months. The moratorium on evictions and the suspension of rental increases is due to end next March.
"We think over the next six months there's going to be a higher level of distress, or a building level of distress, in the community over financial concerns, " Mr Lynch said.
Trying to find appropriate rentals for people on low incomes, he said, had always been hard in this region.
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Anglicare Victoria's 2020 rental affordability snapshot showed that on March 21 - at the beginning of the COVID-19 crisis in Australia - just 10 of 242 properties listed in Greater Bendigo for rent were affordable and appropriate for people on the regular income support payments.
However, 90 met this criteria with the coronavirus supplement.
Both the Australian and Victorian Councils of Social Service are calling on the federal government to maintain the increased income support rates.
"The best way to support those hardest hit by the recession and support economic recovery and jobs is to provide the certainty of a permanent, adequate rate of JobSeeker and other social security payments without delay," ACOSS chief executive officer Dr Cassandra Goldie said.
Social Services Minister Anne Ruston said the government had "acted decisively to support hundreds of thousands of Australians" in extending the coronavirus supplement beyond September, when it was originally slated to end.