Anglicare Sydney has welcomed the Federal Budget's focus on protecting and creating jobs, and the increase in the pension.
However Anglicare Sydney CEO Peter Kell has expressed concern that the momentum behind the Rudd Government's social inclusion agenda has slowed.
"Social inclusion is not just a boom-time luxury. Even before the current economic crisis there were people suffering multiple forms of disadvantage which meant they'd fallen through the cracks already," Mr Kell says.
"We are particularly concerned about carers, those with a mental illness or a disability, new migrants and refugees and older Australians.
"There has been little or no provision in the budget to fund the recommendations from the report of the recent Inquiry into Better Support for Carers.
"An annual payment to carers of $600 dollars, less than two dollars a day, on top of the already inadequate carers' payment and carers' allowance is simply not sufficient for the enormous challenges faced by the approximately 500,000 people in Australia who are primary carers for an ill, infirm or disabled family member."
Jobless face further hardship
Mr Kell is also concerned at the increasing hardship faced by those who have lost their jobs, or whose jobs are at risk.
"The growing gap between the aged pension and the unemployment benefit is unacceptable at a time when unemployment is on the rise with more than one million people expected to be out of work by 2010".
Research to be released later this month by Anglicare Sydney shows an increase in numbers of people accessing emergency relief services.
"People are coming to us unable to pay their rent, unable to pay their bills and unable even to put food on their table. Almost half of the households coming to us are on less than $300 per week," Mr Kell says.
"Given the grim picture painted by the Government tonight, we can only expect this situation to worsen."
Anglicare is the urban mission and community care arm of the Sydney Anglican Church. As one of Australia's largest Christian care organisations, ANGLICARE reaches out to thousands of people every year.
