MORE than 50,000 Shoalhaven and Illawarra residents are living below the poverty line, according to a review by the Illawarra Forum.
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Chief executive Nicky Sloan said the most recent statistics by the National Centre for Social and Economic Modelling revealed about 17 per cent of the Shoalhaven population was considered to be in poverty, while 13.6 per cent of Wollongong and Shellharbour residents were.
Ms Sloan said the 2013 figures also revealed the distressing level of childhood poverty, with 21 per cent of children in the Shoalhaven living in poverty. That number in Wollongong is 14 per cent of children.
Compared with national poverty figures released by the Australian Council of Social Services (ACOSS) this week, the regional statistics were alarming.
“Across the region, more than 51,000 people are struggling to survive on incomes which put them below the poverty line,” Ms Sloan said.
“The figures are particularly disturbing in the Shoalhaven [with figures] significantly above the national average.”
The ACOSS report, released to coincide with Anti-Poverty Week, found more than 2.5 million Australians (13.9 per cent) were living beneath the poverty line, including more than 600,000 children.
To be considered to be below the poverty line (50 per cent of median income), a single adult needed to be surviving on less than $400 a week and a family of four on less than $841.
Ms Sloan said the impact of poverty was far-reaching, affecting finances and physical, mental and emotional health.
“Having high rates of poverty also affects us as a region and as a community as when people are living so far below the poverty line, it affects their ability to participate in our community life,” she said.
Ms Sloan said the Shoalhaven and Illawarra region’s historically high unemployment was a factor in the high levels of poverty.
“The ACOSS report [Poverty in Australia] showed people living on any kind of social income support are most likely to be living under the poverty line,” she said.
“We know that we have a high proportion of people who are unemployed particularly in the Shoalhaven, and particularly our young people.”
Ms Sloan said the lack of affordable housing was also putting enormous stress on families and individuals.
“It is very difficult to get public housing any more so people are paying up to 50 per cent of their income on rent.
“More than 32 per cent of households in the Wollongong local government area are in rental stress, and that rate shoots up to more than 38 per cent in the Shoalhaven,” Ms Sloan said.
“So people who are living on really low incomes are having to spend all their money on essentials – they have no disposable income.”
Ms Sloan said Australians should be calling on the federal government to review the levels of income support, so people had enough money to pursue education and employment.
The region’s leaders should also be calling on government at all levels to invest in job creation.
“We really need to be looking at programs that will generate employment for our region,” she said.
“These figures are alarming but we’ve got to look at them as a baseline and say ‘that’s not OK’; we need to do things to improve these figures.”