No advice sought on raising Newstart rates

Senior bureaucrats have not been asked to provide advice to the government about whether the dole is enough to survive on, despite growing calls to raise the Newstart rate.

"The department has not done a review of the adequacy of Newstart," Social Services secretary Kathryn Campbell told a Senate committee in Canberra on Thursday.

However, the department provided advice to show more than 90 per cent of people on Newstart received other welfare benefits.