An out-of-touch Morrison Government continues to kick desperate drought ravaged farming families off income support despite the on-going and severe drought.
 
Farm Household Allowance (FHA) is a modest payment which helps to put food on the table for farming families which typically have been denied farm income because of weather events outside their control.
 
Scott Morrison says they have been on the payment for too long, but few Australians would agree. No other Centrelink benefit is time-limited. The four-year cap should have been reviewed long ago. Farmers should not be cut off while the drought is on-going. 
 
In a desperate attempt at tidying up his own mess, Scott Morrison decided to give those being cut off an exit payment of $7,500 for singles and $13,000 for couples. But farmers waited up to six months between being cut off – as early as July – until the exit payment they didn’t receive in December. For many it was a tough lead-up to Christmas.
 
More than 1,000 farmers have now been ruthlessly cut of FHA. Scott Morrison says there may be a second exit payment but “may be” is the important part of his claim. Farmers just don’t know and can’t plan.  
 
There is no rationale or logic behind cutting farmers off the payment and then promising a cash payment that may or may not ever come. Just fix this mess Prime Minister.