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Federal Budget is set to hit poor families

Like Robin Hood in reverse, the Federal Budget takes from the poor and gives to the rich according to an analysis by the National Centre for Social and Economic Modeling.

The analysis predicts single income families will be hit the hardest by the Federal Budget’s changes, while wealthier families gain from being less exposed to welfare and other tax benefits.

The budget aims to put $18 billion back onto the bottom line by 2018-19.

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Joe Hockey budget 2015

Treasurer Joe Hockey said the budget was Responsible, Measured and Fair. Picture: AAP

Single income families with two children, one in primary school and another in high school, will suffer increasing impacts over the next four years: in 2015-16 the impact will be $3734.01, ballooning to $6164.62 in 2018-19, Fairfax Media reported.

Modelling for a family with nearly twice as much income or $120,000 and children in high school will lose nearly $11,600 over four years, Fairfax reported.

The numbers hit parents with younger children the hardest, because of unpassed measures in the government’s first budget which cut off children over six from the Family Tax Benefit Part B.

For instance, a single income couple with two kids, one of them under six, have been hit the least at just above $6000 over four years.

NATSEM’s income, housing and wealth spokesman Ben Phillips told Fairfax the government’s view that fairness has been restored in the budget is “probably not really the case”.

“There was certainly a bit more generosity in the families package, but the reality is most childcare dollars go to middle-income families and high-income families, they don’t go to the lower end,” he said.

He said high-income families will be hit less because they are less reliant on benefits, and gain from other tax relief measures.

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