On Tuesday evening, Josh Frydenberg delivered the 2022 Federal Budget, outlining his plans for the year ahead.
Here’s everything that you need to know about the rising cost of living, news for first home buyers, health initiatives and business support.
Cost of living
- A one-off $420 cost of living tax offset will be provided to more than 10 million low and middle-income earners. Those who already receive the offset will receive up to $1,500 (or up to $3,000 for couples) in their 2021-22 tax returns.
- A $250 cost of living payment will be made to pensioners, welfare recipients, veterans and concession cardholders.
- A cut to fuel excise for the next six months, with an expected saving of $300 for the average household.
Housing
- The Home Guarantee Scheme has increased to 50,000 places per year. Eligible single parents can get home deposits as low as 2 per cent and first home buyers can get deposits as low as 5 per cent.
Health
- A reduced Pharmaceutical Benefit Scheme Safety Net thresholds from $1542 to $1457 for general patients and from $326.40 to $244.80 for concessional patients will mean cheaper medicines for 2.4 million Australians
- More than $345 million has been allocated to embed pharmacy services within residential aged care facilities to improve medication management for the elderly.
Business
- Support will be provided to small businesses to adopt new digital technology and upskill employees with new tax incentives. For every $100 that a small business spends on training their employees or digital technologies such as cloud computing, and web design, they will receive a $120 tax deduction.
- In an effort to increase trade apprenticeship take-up and completion rates, new apprentices will get $5000 payments and employers who take them on will receive up to $15,000 in wage subsidies.
Superannuation
- Extension to the 2022-23 income year of the 50% reduction to the minimum pension for account based pensions, transition to retirement income streams and market-linked pensions.