Andrew Leigh

This month over a million Australian families will receive Labor's SchoolKids Bonus which helps low and middle income families meet the costs of school expenses. The payment will cease if the Abbott Government gets its way. Today, I issued a joint media release about this with my Federal ACT colleagues.

MEDIA RELEASE

SCHOOLKIDS BONUS COULD BE THE LAST FOR 12,800 FAMILIES IN THE ACT





If the Abbott Government gets its way, more than a million families will find it much more difficult to pay for school books and uniforms from next year.

This January, 1.3 million Australian families will be receiving the SchoolKids Bonus, a payment of $410 for every primary school child and $820 for every secondary school child.

The payment, developed by Labor when it was in Government, is made at the start of Terms One and Three to help cover the cost of items such as stationery, textbooks, software, laptops, bags, uniforms and shoes.

The SchoolKids Bonus also can help cover the cost of school camps, excursions and extracurricular activities such as music lessons.

However, the Abbott Government has introduced legislation to scrap the SchoolKids Bonus, which will affect 12,812 families in the ACT.

If this legislation passes the Senate, the January SchoolKids Bonus payment will be their last.

Federal Labor representatives in the ACT, Andrew Leigh, Gai Brodtmann and Kate Lundy say that since 2012 the SchoolKids Bonus has delivered much needed relief for low and middle income families struggling to meet the costs of their kids’ education.

Every one of these families will be worse off when the SchoolKids Bonus is scrapped.

The Coalition promised to increase employment and cut living costs. Instead, Canberrans are seeing employment cuts and increases in living costs.

The average family with two kids will be $1,230 worse off every year and $15,000 worse-off over the life of their children’s education.

This is a savage cut from a Government that clearly doesn’t care about Australian families or our kids’ education. The Abbott Government’s priorities are all wrong.