Marginalised … the unemployed. Photo: Virginia Star

SOLE parents and the unemployed on social security payments are missing out on the essentials of life such as dental care and decent housing, and their children lack up-to-date school books and uniforms, a new study shows.

The study has been released by the Australian Council of Social Service in advance of its national conference on Thursday.

It shows 61 per cent of the unemployed on the Newstart allowance and 58 per cent of those on the parenting payment are missing out on at least three essentials of life, compared with 12 per cent of age pensioners and 15 per cent of all households.

“The worst poverty is found in the last places that governments have looked,” the report says. “Pension payments are frugal but unemployed people and sole parents have to get by on much less.”

The study found almost one-quarter of those on Newstart and the parenting payment could not afford a decent, secure home; and more than 40 per cent could not afford dental treatment or home contents insurance. Between 37 per cent and 50 per cent could not access $500 in savings and high proportions could not pay utility bills on time.

More than one-quarter of the children in these families were unable to afford a hobby or leisure activity compared with 5 per cent in the wider community.

The poverty levels were three to five times greater than found among age pensioners who, on some measures, were doing better than working households.

The groups in greatest need missed out on $32 a week payment increases that went to age pensioners in 2009 and, due to lack of adequate indexation, people on Newstart have been falling further behind each year.

The study will be used to bolster calls for the government to increase payments to those on the lowest benefits which are now up to $133 a week less than the age pension. It is the largest gap between pensions and other payments in three decades.

The Newstart allowance for a single person is $243 a week, the parenting payment is $321 and the age pension is $374.

The gap is growing wider because pension indexation is linked to wages growth, and Newstart to inflation.

The report says the argument for keeping Newstart much lower than the age pension – that people only need it for a short period till they find work – is undermined by the nature of the unemployed still stranded on the rolls.

Almost two-thirds have been on the payment for more than a year and one-fifth have a disability. “Their profile increasingly resembles that of the pension payment recipients of yesteryear,” the study says.

Disability pensioners were found to also suffer high rates of material deprivation at 43 per cent despite their pension rate being identical to that of age pensioners. This is because they face significant extra costs due to their disability and are more likely to be renting.

The findings showed welfare recipients who are renting, including age pensioners, to be much worse off, highlighting the need for substantial increases in rent assistance, ACOSS says.

The study is based on data developed by the social policy research centre at the University of NSW that measures people’s actual living standards – their access to the essentials of life.

The essentials have been chosen by a random sample of Australian adults who whittled down a proposed list to 24 items, each of which garnered more than 50 per cent support. Researchers consider people who lack three or more of the 24 essentials because of low income to suffer multiple deprivations.