By Gabriella Payne
Areas of suburban Melbourne are set to face economic woes – with Dandenong being the worst hit of all – as tens of thousands of JobSeeker recipients face drastic cuts to their coronavirus supplement before it is ultimately phased out in 2021.
Almost 10,600 people or 3 percent of Victoria’s JobSeeker recipients live in the Dandenong region, according to information from the Department of Social Services released in November 2020, as the Covid-19 pandemic pushed many out of work and reliant on government support.
The figures revealed that in mid-November 2020 across Victoria, 365,276 people were receiving JobSeeker, with an extra 98,422 people receiving Youth Allowance – meaning the post-Christmas cut will see hundreds of thousands of Victorians struggle to get by.