Media Release: One-in-seven in NSW who rely on welfare agencies miss out on one square meal a day

Anti-Poverty Week – 17-23 October

Around one in seven people in NSW who turn to welfare agencies for help lack a substantial meal at least once a day according to community service organisation Mission Australia.

As well as the most basic need for food, 49 per cent of welfare clients in NSW can’t afford necessary dental treatment, 44 per cent can’t afford to pay their utility bills, 29 per cent have had to pawn or sell something to obtain money and 20 per cent have no access to a bulk-billing doctor.

Thirty-five per cent of NSW clients are unable to afford medicines prescribed by a doctor.
The state-based results are from a 2008 national research project led by Professor Peter Saunders from the Social Policy Research Centre at the University of New South Wales in partnership with Mission Australia and a range of community service organisations.

The research pays particular attention to households with children requiring welfare agency support, revealing 26 per cent are unable to provide hobby or leisure activities for their kids, 20 per cent are unable to afford school activities and 14 per cent are unable to provide separate beds for each child.

Mission Australia’s NSW/ACT State Director, Leonie Green, said the results revealed the often desperate levels of poverty, deprivation and exclusion facing the individuals and families who rely on community service agencies for support.

“These aren’t encouraging figures. They show just how far we have to go as a society to truly arrive at a ‘fair Australia’,” said Ms Green.

Ms Green said she hoped the figures would re-energise the Federal Government’s social inclusion agenda which is aimed at achieving better outcomes for disadvantaged people.

“Now that we’re through the global financial crisis – and with a capable new Minister for Social Inclusion in Tanya Plibersek – the Federal Government has the opportunity to get on the front foot and pursue an agenda that makes real differences in the lives of people who are currently excluded from the essentials of life.

“The Gillard Government must apply itself to the issues which currently weigh so heavily on disadvantaged Australians – reducing homelessness, providing substantially more support to people with mental health issues, tackling rising youth unemployment, and providing ‘place-based’ support to people in the country’s most disadvantaged postcodes.

“Particularly at a time when Australia is patting itself on the back for avoiding the worst of the financial crisis and a possible return to the boom years, these figures are a wake-up call that poverty is still very real in this country.

“It will take targeted and deliberate action to change that. We hope that the political realities of a hung Parliament won’t get in the way – the people we help can’t afford for to wait for another three years,” said Ms Green.