THE Federal Government has been secretly backing out of its welfare obligations, forcing Australian battlers to pay hundreds of dollars more for medicine, electricity and education. The Health Care Card gives low-income earners access to cheap medicines and health-care services. It is linked to discounts on public transport, water rates, electricity, education, car registration and stamp duty on modestly priced homes. But an investigation by The Sunday Times has found that Australians must be significantly poorer to qualify for the card in 2003 than when Prime Minister John Howard was elected in 1996. Shop assistants and hospitality workers, Australia's lowest paid workers, can no longer get the Health Care Card because, on $684 a week before tax, the Government says they earn too much. Even a single person on the minimum wage of $448 a week no longer qualifies. The income level at which Australians can get the card has lagged behind rising wages and higher cost of living over the past seven years. Opposition family and community services spokesman Wayne Swan said the loss of the Health Care Card created more struggling families. "These battling families are working hard to keep heads above water and this Government is a lead weight to them," Mr Swan said. "Just like the increasing tax burden on families through bracket creep the Howard Government has stripped families of Health Card benefits by stealth." The income thresholds to qualify for the card rose 14 per cent in the past seven years. In the same period, the average wage soared 27 per cent and the cost of living by 17 per cent. A couple with two children can earn up to $32,604, or just 68 per cent of the average wage before they are ruled ineligible for the card. Eight years ago the cut-off point was $28,000 or 80 per cent of the average wage. This welfare "bracket creep" has resulted in a 22 per cent fall in the number of Health Care Cards for families in the past three years alone, according to the Department of the Family and Community Services annual reports. There were almost 32,000 dependents listed on low-income health care cards in 2000-2001 but that number has plunged to under 25,000. Once a family becomes ineligible for the card, prescription medicines no longer cost $3.70 each but the general pharmaceutical benefits rate of $23.10. Ambulance transport, dental and eye care are no longer free without the card, which is also often a requirement for bulk-billing by doctors. Source Fleur Anderson, Canberra ###