WOMEN living in poverty is estimated to have risen by four percent in the Southern Grampians Shire in the five years between 2016 and 2021.
New analysis from the Victorian Council of Social Service (VCOSS) has revealed the shocking reality that 15 per cent of women were deemed to be living in economic disadvantage in the Shire in 2021 after the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) compared census data to 2016 when it was 11 per cent.
It found that 14 per cent of all people in the Shire were living in economic disadvantage - that’s higher than the overall Victorian poverty rate of 13.3 per cent.
The analysis showed that 11 per cent of men were living in economic disadvantage in the Southern Grampians.
For young people (aged 15-24) economic disadvantage was estimated to have changed by around one per cent in the five years from 10 per cent in 2016 to 11 per cent in 2021.
Encouragingly, the rates of Aboriginal people living in low-income households is estimated to have decreased by two per cent in the Shire, from 34 per cent in 2016 to 32 per cent in 2021.
For all people aged 15 and above living in economic disadvantage in Southern Grampians, 57 per cent were women and 43 per cent were men.
In total, that equates to around 1300 people in Hamilton and a further 800 in the surrounding area within the Shire.
When breaking the demographic analysis down further, for the township of Hamilton, women fared slightly better at 14 per cent than the Shire’s percentage.
Twelve per cent of men in Hamilton were found to be living in economic disadvantage - an estimated increase of one percentage point.
The VCOSS report also showed that more than a quarter of those in economic disadvantage in Hamilton were revealed to be children with 26 per cent (aged under 15) living in poverty.
For the remainder cohorts of all people living in economic disadvantage in Hamilton, eight per cent are youths (aged 15-24), 40 per cent were working age persons (aged 25-64) and 27 per cent were older people (aged 65+).
By household composition for those in economic disadvantage in Hamilton the largest cohort was single parent households at 36 per cent, 13 per cent lived as a couple only, 28 per cent lived as a couple with dependent children, 22 per cent lived as a single person, one per cent made up all other household types.
VCOSS determines that people experience significant economic disadvantage when their household’s disposable income (after paying tax) falls below a level considered adequate to achieve an acceptable standard of living.
VCOSS chief executive, Emma King said according to the data, there is not a single older person living in public housing in country Victoria who is not living in poverty.
“The poverty rate is literally 100 per cent,” she said.
“This is not something we can tolerate.”
The analysis showed that across the state a staggering 800,000 Victorians were living in poverty, including more than 200,000 kids.
People with a disability and those who don’t speak English very well, are more than two-and-a-half times more likely to live in poverty.
Roughly 50,000 more women than men are living in poverty (women represent 55 per cent of all adults in poverty).
“Aboriginal Victorians are twice as likely to live in poverty,” Ms King said.
The report showed that while there has been a “noticeable decrease” in the rate of poverty across country Victoria since 2016, this is mostly attributed to higher-income Melburnians moving to the regions during COVID - however, the Southern Grampians Shire population was largely unaffected by this trend.
VCOSS said it was important to keep in mind that these figures represented a snapshot of an unusual time in 2021, when the world was about 18 months into the COVID-19 pandemic which caused significant disruption to lives and livelihoods.
Other key findings of the VCOSS analysis showed that poverty remained stubbornly high across regional and rural Victoria.
Poverty across Melbourne had increased since 2016 and child poverty remains significant and widespread.
More people over 65 are living in poverty - and it’s getting worse as housing costs continue to hurt both renters and mortgage holders and while having a job makes you less likely to live in poverty, it doesn’t fully protect you.
The VCOSS report was released preceding the national body’s call for the Federal Government to raise income support payments to at least the pension rate on Monday.
The Australian Council of Social Service (ACOSS) said its recent survey across the country found almost three quarters of people receiving income support were eating less or skipping meals due to the low rate of payments and rising cost of living.
ACOSS said the upcoming increase to rates will not be enough to prevent “widespread distress”.
JobSeeker will be just $54 a day and Youth Allowance just $43 when the $20-a-week increase announced in the May Budget and 2.2 per cent indexation kick in on September 20.
