PUBLIC housing tenants face losing part of their carbon tax offset on higher rent.
The federal government has promised to pay pensioners and other welfare recipients a supplementary payment to compensate for higher cost of living and energy bills under the carbon tax.
However, the Baillieu government has so far refused to rule out increasing rents for public housing tenants who receive the offsets.
Tenants in public housing living on pensions and other welfare payments pay 25 per cent of their income in rent. The carbon tax offsets – $338 a year for single pensioners – are expected to begin to be paid from May, with the carbon tax coming into effect from July.
Federal Families Minister Jenny Macklin last month asked state housing ministers to quarantine the carbon offset payments so they would not be calculated as income.
“This money is from the federal government for pensioners and should not be going to housing authorities and state governments,” she said.
However, the Victorian government has not confirmed whether the money will be exempt from rent.
If included, it will amount to the second rent increase for public housing tenants this year. Earlier this year, the Baillieu government increased rents to include federal pension increases, reneging on a commitment by the former Brumby government to leave it out.
Victorian Public Tenants Association spokeswoman Jackie Dacey met with the state government last week to discuss the issue.
