Centrelink’s currency divide

I am a uni student, and yes I get Centrelink payments.  While I know many of you tax payers may already be willing to rip out my heart and eat it for this travesty, I think you should at least listen to what I have to say.  Thanks to the convoluted system currently in place, if I “earn” another $100 by working a few extra hours each week, I am actually going to be worse off.  It sounds weird, and inconsistent, but it’s all thanks to the magic that is Centrelink.

The rules are that if a person is entitled to Rent Assistance, they will only receive this payment if they are also receiving another payment.  That means that if I recieve a $3 Youth Allowance payment, I am eligible for Rent Assistance, which is around $75 per fortnight.  Now if my gross incoming improves by $5 a fortnight, my Youth Allowance disappears.  And since I will no longer be getting that payment, I also lose out on Rent Assistance.

Being the geek that I am, I’ve actually graphed all of this.  As you can see, there’s that sharp dip around the $850-$900 mark.  That’s where I am now.  If I want to receive any more money, I need to earn at least $150 a fortnight more.  That’s another 6 or 7 hours of work, per fortnight.  It’s not a lot of work, but that’s just to break even.  To put it in other words, whether I earn $850 or $950 makes zero difference to the amount of actual money I have per week.

A graph showing how much I can earn, from work, against how much money in total that I will receive.