You probably don’t know about it, but right now there is a Bill before the Australian Senate about the way public housing tenants pay their rent.
It’s called the ‘Housing Affordability Bill’ and is trying to change the law so that every public housing tenant receiving Centrelink payments in this country loses control over how they pay their rent.
If passed, it would allow all states and territories to automatically deduct rent from every public housing tenant receiving Centrelink payments.
This is despite almost 100% of public housing tenants doing the right thing and paying their rent on time.
The VPTA believes that the current opt-in process for automatic rent reduction should remain.
We believe that people living on low incomes should have control over how they pay their rent so that they can manage the small amount of finances they have themselves.
As a last resort option, we think the changes should only apply to tenants who are in rent arrears and at risk of homelessness.
The Australian Council of Social Service oppose this bill and have made recommendations that we fully support.
For more detail on their recommendations, click here.