Letter to the editor – Labor’s School Saving Bonus fails to deliver for Victorian families

Tens of thousands of low-income Victorian households will miss out on cost-of-living relief due to Labor’s rushed and poorly designed “School Saving Bonus”.

This $400 payment is a credit automatically applied to all Victorian Government school students, but it is restricted to concession card holders at Catholic and non-government schools.

It simply isn’t fair that a high-income government school family will automatically receive this payment, whilst a low-income non-government school family may be excluded.

Schools like St Mary’s in Heathcote has 86 per cent of their students in the lowest quartiles when it comes to disadvantage – yet the vast majority of these students and their families are ineligible for the $400 payment.

This is not an isolated scenario – 71 per cent of students in St Mary’s College in Seymour face the same situation, as do 74 per cent at Holy Rosary in Heathcote and 60 per cent of students at St Joseph’s Nagambie.

Why is it fair that the Allan Government divide students based on school rather than need?