Over the past four years, ‘Cost of Living’ has been on everybody’s mind. While it seems like all Australians are feeling the crunch or making financial adjustments, the true and differential impacts of sustained high costs often don’t make it into public narrative, and are largely excluded from government response. The reality is, while many Australians have experienced some disruption, those on the lowest incomes have been pushed even further into hardship and face a cycle of cruel and relentless poverty.
Living standards vary according to the goods, services, social supports and inclusion one can afford and access. Australia has a broad range of living standards, and most people can generally afford basic goods and services and engage in activities that promote social wellbeing. Year after year however, the WACOSS Cost of Living Report has demonstrated that households on minimum wage and/or government income supports struggle to afford life’s essentials.
Rapid cost increases at the end of the COVID-19 pandemic – particularly the significant increases to the cost of housing – have exacerbated this inequality, with families living on low income more harshly hit than those on average or higher wages. Those on higher wages have been able to respond by changing their spending patterns and drawing on reserves. In practice this looks like changing the brands they buy, adjusting travel plans, or seeing their mortgage principal reduce more slowly than they expected.
On the other hand, low-income households, with little discretionary spending or savings, have less financial flexibility and have had to cut spending on essential items – forced to reduce food consumption, stop heating and cooling and forego medical treatment. When unexpected expenses come up, like a car break down or illness, people on low income must either go without, or get a loan and risk unescapable debt. These outcomes impact negatively on physical health and safety, and on mental and emotional wellbeing.
Poverty is a product of our collective societal choices. Over time, we have created economic and social systems that fail to share wealth and leave people without the basics. As a society, as government, and as law and policy makers, we can make choices to change these circumstances.
To date, successive governments in WA have failed to recognise the real experiences of people on low income and have delivered one off and piecemeal initiatives attempting to address these issues, rather than the systemic social and economic changes needed. The day-to-day realities for people on low income are excluded from political and public discourses, stymying real, positive change.
In an effort to address this, WACOSS and Murdoch University have worked with eight people living on low income to produce individual narratives of their experiences on low income. These narratives illustrate the way in which the systems we have created impact those experiencing disadvantage and make a strong case for change. Narrative is a powerful tool and the people who control the narrative about any issue have power over the lives of others. In these case studies we want the reader to see each person’s narrative intact, to picture their lives on low income as presented by them at this moment in time.
