JobSeeker data shows breakdown of unemployment payments during coronavirus pandemic

The federal government has announced the base rate of its JobSeeker unemployment payment will rise by $50 a fortnight.

It means an individual gets $615 a fortnight, which equates to about $44 a day, while a single parent will get about $58 a day.

So how many people does this affect?

The latest figures from the Department of Social Services show that 1.24 million people were on JobSeeker in January and another 135,540 received youth allowance.

The figure was at its highest in May last year, when 1.46 million people were on JobSeeker.

Compare that to pre-pandemic levels when 684,138 people were on JobSeeker (known as Newstart at the time) in May 2019.