EXPECTED changes to welfare payments affecting the youth and elderly would disproportionately impact Tasmanians, the head of the state's peak social services body has said.
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Reports yesterday suggested the federal government planned to keep people younger than 25 on Youth Allowance rather than permitting a transition to the higher-paying Newstart unemployment benefit.
Currently, people aged 22 are eligible to move from Youth Allowance, which at most provides $414 a fortnight, to Newstart, which pays $510.
Another expected change is forcing school leavers to wait six months before applying for Youth Allowance.
Tasmanian Council of Social Services chief executive Tony Reidy labelled the upcoming changes ``very concerning indeed''.
He said reducing inadequate payments would further disadvantage young job seekers who already struggled to afford essentials, including water and electricity.
``The [Newstart] benefit is so small it is not enough for people to live on in any decent or respectable way,'' Mr Reidy said.
``The solution isn't to punish people . . . it is found in the development of workplace-based programs.''
Mr Reidy said the state's high dependency on government benefits, which sees a third of the state's population rely on welfare, would see it disproportionately affected.
Mr Reidy said raising the retirement age to 70 for people born after 1965 was equally worrying.
``We're going to be condemning a generation of older Tasmanians to poverty,'' he said.
``Many in labour-oriented professions won't be able to continue in those roles and won't be able to gain other employment.''