29th Mar 2017, 6:01 PM – Representatives Social Services Legislation Amendment Bill 2017 - Consideration in Detail - Agree to the bill

The majority voted to agree with the bill. The House will now decide whether to pass the bill, which will be the final stage the bill must pass through and is known in parliamentary jargon as the third reading stage.

What does the bill do?

The purpose of this bill is to make savings for the government in the social services sector (social welfare etc).

According to the bill's homepage, it was introduced to:

• pause for three years the indexation of various income thresholds that apply to certain social security benefits and allowances and the income test free area for parenting payment single
• extend the ordinary waiting period to youth allowance (other) and parenting payment
• include additional evidentiary requirements for the ‘severe financial hardship’ exemption from the ordinary waiting period
• remove the ability for claimants to serve the ordinary waiting period concurrently with other waiting periods
• enable automation of the regular income stream review process; and
• maintain the standard family tax benefit (FTB) child rates for two years, from 1 July 2017, in the maximum and base rate of FTB Part A and the maximum rate of FTB Part B.