One in eight Australians adults and one in six children are living in poverty, a new report has found.
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The Australian Council of Social Service and UNSW Sydney joint study found 13.6 per cent of the population - or 3.24 million people - are estimated to be living below the poverty line, after taking account of housing costs.
Of those, 774,000 children are living in poverty, the study published on Friday said.
The council's chief executive Cassandra Goldie said Australians were locked into poverty by low welfare rates, a lack of jobs and unaffordable housing.
She called on the government to raise welfare payments, invest in social housing and boost jobs growth.
"Our economy is leaving people behind, with persistently high poverty rates despite decades of uninterrupted economic growth," Dr Goldie said.
Researchers warned Australia's poverty rate was worse than most wealthy countries, including New Zealand, Germany and Ireland.
In Australia, the poverty line was $457 per week for a single adult, with the poverty line measured as 50 per cent of median income.
The average gap between the poverty line and people living in poverty was $282 per week.
The study found nine in 10 Youth Allowance recipients skipped meals and one in three quit studying because of a lack of funds.
Eight in 10 Newstart recipients skipped meals and more than half had less than $15 after housing costs, it said.
Dr Goldie also wants welfare payments indexed to wages like the age pension.
Mission Australia CEO James Toomey said increasing housing costs were pushing people into poverty.
"Housing costs are rising faster than incomes, especially for low-income earners, pushing thousands of Australians into rental stress and homelessness," he said.
"We urgently need more social and affordable homes and an increase in Commonwealth Rent Assistance if Australia is to have any hope of addressing poverty and ending homelessness."
Good Shepherd chief executive Stella Avramopoulos said poverty disproportionately impacted women.
"Single-parent families, 83 per cent of whom are female-led, remain the family type with the greatest experience of poverty."
Anglicare Australia executive director Kasy Chambers said the report showed Newstart had become a "poverty trap" and a rise was needed.
"People are stuck in poverty while they look for work, and sometimes, the low rate of Newstart means they can't get job-ready at all," she said.
"Raising the rate of Newstart is the single biggest step we could take to reduce poverty in Australia."
Australian Associated Press
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