Budget: Smouldering Anger v Smokin' Joe

Smouldering Anger v Smokin' Joe ...................... (cartoon by Matt Golding)

• More than one third of the budget cuts - $6 billion - fall on the middle quintile of households, earning $45,000 to $63,000.
• Families with school-age children are the hardest hit. Across all income groups, they will lose $15.9 billion over four years, more than 90 per cent of the total.
• Low and middle-income sole parents suffer worst of all, losing between 10 and 15 per cent of their annual income - $4000 to $6250 - on family earnings of less than $60,000 by the time the changes to welfare take full effect in 2017-18.
• The burden rises sharply for families with children over the four years of the budget. For example, a sole parent earning $60,000 with children aged eight and 12 will lose $1808 in annual income in 2014-15 and $6278 in 2017-18.

Low- and middle-income earners, especially those with school-age children, are hit hardest as the family tax benefit for single-income families is abolished and indexation is curbed.

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