In recent years, a series of emails have been widely circulated throughout Australia claiming to describe the social security entitlements of refugees, compared with those of other Australian residents. A common claim in these emails is that refugees in Australia receive higher social security benefits than age pensioners. Some also suggest that refugees receive free gifts such as houses. Claims of this kind are erroneous and appear to have caused some confusion in the community. They are often brought to the attention of certain senators and members by their constituents.<\/p>\n
The information in the disputed email appears to have originated from emails that began to circulate in Canada in 2004. These were a response to a story in the Toronto Star in March 2004 about plans to settle hundreds of African refugees in smaller Canadian cities. The article had somewhat ambiguously described the amount of financial assistance that would be provided to the refugees by the Canadian Government.<\/p>\n
This led one reader to incorrectly assume that the refugees would be receiving benefits at twice the rate of Canadian age pensioners. Based on this misunderstanding, the reader is thought to have then circulated an email condemning the level of benefits available to refugees in Canada, compared to that available to pensioners.<\/p>\n
The claims then began to appear in emails and letters to the editor in other countries such as the US and Australia, with the names of those countries used in substitute for Canada. In August 2007, the then Minister for Families, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs, Mal Brough, described the emails as “junk” and urged people who receive them to “send them to the trash can”.<\/p>\n
Refugees – that is, people who have been granted a Protection visa – do not receive higher benefits than other social security recipients. In general, Australian Government payments are only available to people who reside in Australia and are either Australian citizens or holders of permanent visas. When an asylum seeker is granted refugee status, they become permanent residents of Australia. They have the same entitlements as all other permanent residents. There are no special refugee payments or special rates of payments for refugees.<\/p>\n
Most refugees are of working age. This means that the main form of assistance provided to refugees is Newstart Allowance (commonly known as unemployment benefits). To qualify for Newstart Allowance, a refugee needs to meet the same requirements as any other resident. This includes participation in activities designed to increase one’s chances of finding work and accepting work should it become available. There are no special or extra rates of Newstart Allowance for refugees.<\/p>\n
As such, a single refugee receiving Newstart Allowance and sharing rented accommodation would currently receive $530.53 per fortnight (comprised of Newstart Allowance of $456.00 and Rent Assistance of $74.53). This is precisely the same amount that would be received by any other permanent resident of Australia receiving Newstart Allowance. Similarly, any refugees receiving other Australian Government payments such as Disability Support Pension or Age Pension receive such payments at precisely the same rate as is paid to all other permanent residents.<\/p>\n
Therefore, there is no truth to claims made in emails circulated throughout Australia that refugees are entitled to higher benefits than other social security recipients. Refugees have the same entitlements as all other permanent residents – they do not receive special refugee payments or special rates of payment. The assistance to refugees and asylum seekers is longstanding and has bipartisan support. Such support is consistent the overall obligation and commitment by Australia to provide protection for refugees and resolve refugee situations.<\/p>\n
Reference: Australian Government assistance to refugees: fact v fiction, Luke Buckmaster, Parliament of Australia, Background Note, December 2009.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In recent years, a series of emails have been widely circulated throughout Australia claiming to describe the social security entitlements of refugees, compared with those of other Australian residents. A common claim in these emails is that refugees in Australia receive higher social security benefits than age pensioners. Some also suggest that refugees receive free […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4129,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-244393","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244393","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4129"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=244393"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244393\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=244393"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=244393"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=244393"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}