• Most unemployed people receiving social security payments live below the poverty line.

• Single jobless people receive benefits of almost 25% less than the official poverty line.

• The amount received by unemployed people relative to the poverty line has dropped by almost 10% in 10 years.

• A person earning $317.61 a week is on the poverty line; the maximum benefit for a jobless person is $242.30.

[Source: the March 1 Herald Sun. Got a shockfact? Email <glw@greenleft.org.au>.]

From Green Left Weekly, March 9, 2005.
Visit the Green Left Weekly home page.

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