TODAY’S ‘Economic and social impact survey’ from the Salvation Army gives a chilling insight into life for someone living on the wrong side of the poverty line.
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It’s also a tragic reminder of how incidents of family violence can adversely affect not only the victim – in most cases a woman – but any children involved as well.
In the national survey, 1600 clients of the Salvation Army revealed some disturbing findings, particularly for Tasmanians affected directly by poverty and domestic violence.
A 2015 state government report showed that on average, 12 people a night in Tasmania were being turned away from homeless services as demand for shelters hit unprecedented levels.
We already know Tasmanians are more likely to receive some form of welfare payments than anyone else in the country, and as a result are more likely to earn a lot less than their mainland counterparts in terms of average weekly wage.
Perhaps that explains why Tasmanians surveyed experience the highest level of housing transiency, with three out of every five respondents moving on average 2.7 times in the past year.
For those people with children, that can have a extremely detrimental effect on a child’s upbringing if it involves moving to a different school, tearing them away from their friends.
Also, one-in-three Tasmanians who were forced to move home did so as the result of domestic violence, while more than one-in-five were currently homeless or living in temporary accommodation.
Poverty obviously, also has a huge impact in terms of homelessness. If you have a family to support and you are paying rent, then living on welfare can be incredibly difficult.
Almost half of those surveyed said they had to go without meals over the past year because they simply couldn’t afford to buy food.
According to the Salvos, some single parent families surveyed were living off less than $17 a day after paying for accommodation. That’s nothing short of a tragedy.
The Salvation Army used the findings in its survey to call on both major parties to show leadership and to make homelessness an issue during the election campaign.
The harsh reality is, without charitable groups like the Salvation Army, there is often no one else helping society’s most needy and vulnerable people.
