Social Services Legislation Amendment Bill 2017

The majority voted to pass the bill in the Senate. In parliamentary jargon they voted to read the bill for a third time.

The bill will now go to the House of Representatives, where our Members of Parliament (MPs) will decide if they also agree with the bill and want it to become law.

What is the bill?

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.