Alison Pennington, a senior economist at the Centre for Future Work, pointed to the policy inconsistencies where a student who works part-time and receives Youth Allowance did not qualify for the payment but a wealthy student who lives at home and did not get Youth Allowance (due to their parents’ income) could receive it. More than 1.2 million students, pensioners, disabled people and their carers and the unemployed went without support for four weeks. But, under pressure from welfare groups, unions, the Greens and even the NSW Liberal Treasurer, the federal government extended the Disaster Payment to workers on JobSeeker and Youth Allowance.