ACTCOSS defines poverty as the experience of both deprivation and exclusion, compared with the standards of living of the community in which a person lives.
Our advocacy aims to ensure every person living in the ACT can meet minimum standards of living as defined by community norms.
Being unable to afford the costs of living for a decent life drives deprivation and exclusion. A significant number of households in the ACT struggle with meeting basic expenses including housing, adequate and healthy food, transport costs and paying utility and medical expenses. In families with children, there are no funds for school excursions or to participate in out of school activities with their peers. These households include all ages, but people living with disability, single parents and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families are regularly forced into decisions about which ‘necessity’ they should go without.
The ACT has a relatively high cost of living which exacerbates the gap between income and costs for low income households, increasing inequality in our city. ACTCOSS advocacy focuses on reducing inequality in income and access to other resources.
Contact for policy relating to poverty:
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