Living costs for Age pensioner and Pensioner and beneficiary (PBLCI) households fell 0.1 per cent in the December 2024 quarter according to the latest data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS). This is the first fall in quarterly living costs since the June 2020 quarter for households whose main source of income is government payments.
Michelle Marquardt, ABS head of prices statistics, said: “Lower prices for electricity due to the 2024-25 Commonwealth Energy Bill Relief fund rebates impacted living costs this quarter. These lower electricity prices largely offset rises in other areas of living costs.”
Living costs were also impacted by an increase in Commonwealth Rent Assistance (CRA) this quarter, especially for Age pensioner and Pensioner and beneficiary households. The increase in CRA reduced the amount of rent payable by eligible households. From 20 September 2024, the maximum rate for CRA increased by 10% in addition to the usual biannual CPI indexation each year.
Government payment recipient households also experienced falls in Health costs due to an increase in the proportion of these households reaching the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) safety net threshold this quarter, reducing their out-of-pocket expenses.
Employee households saw the largest rise in living costs across the household types this quarter, up 0.4 per cent.
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“While the growth in Employee households’ living costs has also slowed this quarter, these households continued to see higher rises than others as they are more impacted by mortgage interest charges. The Reserve Bank of Australia’s cash rate stayed the same this quarter, however higher mortgage debt levels and the continued rollover of expired fixed rate mortgages to higher variable rate mortgages led to a rise in mortgage interest charges” Ms Marquardt said.
