Energy supplement has been cut from 1st July (video)

The Energy supplement has been cut from 1st July to anyone who became a new welfare recipient after Sept 20th 2016. If you were on your payment before then you'll keep it, but if you change to another payment you'll lose it.

On Monday a coalition of welfare groups called on the Government to abandon its Budget 2016 measure to discontinue the Energy Supplement, which tops up all major social security payments, including the Age and Disability Support Pensions, Family Tax Benefit Parts A and B, Parenting and Carer Payments, and Newstart and Youth Allowances.

The measure would see people who become new recipients of a payment on or after 20 September 2016 lose entitlement to the Supplement.

The Budget 2016 measure is the most recent of several modifications of what began as the Clean Energy Supplement, introduced by the Gillard Government over the course of 2013 to compensate social security recipients for increased costs arising from the introduction of a carbon price. Asia and Pacific Policy Society

Labor's Jenny Macklin rightly asks the gov why they're cutting the supplement right at the time of hugely increasing power bills. 

Abbott wanted to get rid of it earlier as part of abolishing the carbon tax (certainly didn't say that during the 2013 election did he) but as it's turned out abolishing the carbon tax is the very reason for skyrocketing energy prices. There's no policy stability coming from Canberra and energy suppliers don't have clarity on what to invest in to replace aging coal fired plants.

So here we have pensions being cut (albeit new recipients) along with penalty rates, all affecting the lower paid and poorest Australians, 3 million of which are currently already living under the poverty line. At the same time as Turnbull gets a $17k pay rise and giving billions in tax cuts to corporations.

How does the gov expect to win the election when they're clobbering the community like this? They must have rocks in there head. Or coal.