Currently, the Jobseeker payment averages at around $50 a day, depending on individual circumstances. Not-for-profit organisation Anglicare Australia is calling on the government ahead of the May budget to lift payments to $88 a day.
This would raise incomes to meet the Henderson Poverty Line, which was established in the mid-1960s to measure poverty, and is updated quarterly to account for changes in the economy.
The report says the increased payment would lift almost 2.3 million Australians out of poverty, including 840,000 children.
Anglicare have made a submission to the federal government ahead of the May budget, calling for an increase in the Jobseeker wage subsidy to create a more stable income above the poverty line.
Executive Director of Anglicare Australia Kasey Chambers says it's a matter of urgency.
"The budget is obviously a financial mechanism for how we want Australia to look. And what we're saying is that we know the rate of working age payments is so low it's pushing people into poverty. We have a poverty inquiry at the moment that the federal government is undertaking, we have the federal government looking at how we measure well-being in the budget, and we're saying we can't possibly have those conversations without a rise in Jobseeker."
