Pensioners 'living below poverty line' say welfare increase not enough

Pensioners who are "living below the poverty line" say a $37 fortnightly increase in welfare payments isn't enough to ease cost of living pressures.

Roger Arnaud told Today his rent had already gone up $20 a week so this fortnightly increase will make no difference.

"I took a part-time job at the end of October, you couldn't live on a pension without additional income," he said.

READ MORE: Fears 10th consecutive rate rise will push families to breaking point

"I think the government needs to catch up with some of the realities of what's going on in this country, some of the rules and things are really out of date and they haven't taken into account, cost of housing and price increases over the last five, 10 years."

For Paulene, a $24 Jobseeker payment increase "will make no difference" after her rent went up $115 a week.

"Any rise is great, but it's not that significant," Paulene said.

"It's still going to leave me in survival mode, where I'm robbing Peter to pay Paul - It's great that there's a little bit more and it might mean that I don't run out of bread and milk the day before I get paid, but it's not going to make a significant difference when we're still living significantly below the poverty line."

See what else Roger and Paulene had to say in the video above

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