Govt \'must act to ease soaring costs\'
Friday Jan 4 15:34 AEDT
Governments must do more to help people cope with the soaring cost of daily living to prevent them being locked in a cycle of poverty, Victoria\'s peak social agency has warned.
With major banks lifting interest rates and petrol prices tipped to reach $1.50 per litre next week, the Victorian Council of Social Service (VCOSS) says struggling households are facing an unprecedented level of debt and uncertainty.
Starting this month, Victorians will pay up to 17.6 per cent more for their electricity, an average $160 a year, because of the ongoing drought, and 7.5 per cent more for their gas.
Water bills are also due to double over the next five years to help pay for the state government\'s major water projects, including a desalination plant.
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VCOSS chief executive Cath Smith said the increased costs meant poorer households were unable to save money.
A whole lot of bills for really essential costs of living are all going up, they\'re going up a lot more than CPI, they\'re going up more than average wages ... and we\'re not yet seeing enough action by governments to address some of these cost of living issues, Ms Smith told AAP.
For some private tenants, weekly rent and petrol had each risen by about $30-40 a week and utility bills were also rising, Ms Smith said.
Basically, that\'s 100 bucks a week that people can\'t save towards their mortgage now, so that really locks people into a cycle that in the long term they can\'t sustain, she said.
Rising costs also caused some families to skimp on food, Ms Smith said.
People are putting lower quality food on the table, or less food on the table because that\'s the thing that struggling households can at least have some control over. That\'s not a good thing, she said.
Some people were also using their credit cards for essential costs because their income was below their expenditure, she said.
That level of debt and that level of precariousness that a lot of households are in now, that would be unprecedented, Ms Smith said.
Ms Smith said governments should invest more in public transport to help people cope with rising fuel costs and in energy efficiency measures for low income households.
If you can afford to put on solar hot water, you get a fantastic subsidy, but if you can\'t afford to put something like that in, or if you\'re a tenant ... then you don\'t really have those opportunities, she said.
National Australia Bank (NAB) has increased interest rates, lifting its variable home loan rate to 8.69 per cent amid rising wholesale funding costs from the global credit crisis.
Australia\'s largest mortgage holder, the Commonwealth Bank, this week increased its fixed-rate home loans to 8.64 per cent for one to four-year mortgages.
Anglicare Victoria called on major banks to consider the social impact of another rate rise.
Anglicare Victoria chief executive Ray Cleary said many low-income families would find themselves in crisis under another rate rise.
Australia\'s strong economy has not benefited all in the community, he said.
In fact, what we are seeing at Anglicare Victoria is a divided economy where some people are doing well but an increasing group of people are really struggling to deal with the combined effect of high housing cost, rising petrol costs and an increase in energy bills, Dr Cleary said.
©AAP 2008
