CRIPPLING demand is putting enormous strain on welfare agencies in Melbourne’s inner-west and across Australia.
The largest survey of Australia’s community services sector, released on Monday by the Australian Council of Social Service, shows frontline agencies are unable to meet the growing demand for help.
The annual Australian community sector survey of more than 500 agencies shows housing availability and affordability remains the greatest unmet need.
Heavy demand is also putting strain on community-based care, treatment for mental illness and emergency relief.
ACOSS deputy CEO Tessa Boyd-Caine said the housing affordability crisis was having a devastating impact, forcing people on the lowest income deeper into poverty.
“Nearly 70 per cent of housing and homeless services themselves reported that they struggled to meet demand, with a 5 per cent increase in the number of people turned away,” she said.
Four in five people seeking help from housing and homeless services were wholly reliant on income support payments.
“This is extremely alarming and further evidence of the damage being caused by keeping allowance payments such as Newstart as low as $35 a day,” Dr Boyd-Caine said.
Other services under significant stress and unable to meet demand include legal services (63 per cent), youth services (52per cent) and domestic violence and sexual assault services (46per cent).
“Our overall findings paint a disturbing picture of a sector under critical pressure, including from chronic underfunding and uncertainty about the funding of services,” Dr Boyd-Caine said.
“We need urgent action to address these issues, along with a plan to increase the abysmally low income support allowance payments like Newstart, if we are going to prevent more people falling into poverty and into the arms of our already stretched community services.”
