A new year, a new battle - Herald Sun

WHILE our hangovers from New Year's Eve will quickly lift on Tuesday, the financial headaches will just be kicking in.

Daily commuters to Melbourne from some of the poorest regions in the state will face large fare increases from the start of the new year.

The price of a monthly rail ticket from Moe to Melbourne will rise from $356 to $380; a ticket from Warragul to Melbourne will jump from $280.90 to $300.

Add in an average increase of $80 per annum on our power bills, and rises to the cost of driving on CityLink, and it would be no surprise if the new year begins with many people feeling grumpy.

The news from Canberra will also have some people feeling a little out of sorts.

Starting on Tuesday fewer people will be eligible for Family Tax Benefit part A and some people living in the outer suburbs will no longer be eligible for telehealth services.

The Federal Government is also reducing the amount time that people can spend overseas while in receipt of benefits ranging from the Disability Support Pension, Parenting Payment and Carer Payment, to Youth Allowance and Austudy.

Contemplating the list of changes that will leave most of us out of pocket, it is tempting to reflect on what we get for our money.

In the case of public transport next year's 6.8 per cent rise comes a year after last year's 8.6 per cent hike.

Despite some improvements to punctuality in the past two years most commuters would struggle to believe that the service is 15 per cent better than it was two years.

In the same way, commuters who were stuck in Thursday's massive traffic jams on CityLink are likely to look upon toll increases with a jaundiced eye especially if they pause to reflect on the reduced speed limits that seem to have become an almost permanent feature of the road.

Few of us would argue that the Commonwealth has been right to begin reining in the middle class welfare that so many of us became used to in the past few years. But, while we might in theory welcome tighter targeting of benefits, many will be feeling poorer for the cuts taking effect next week.

But as irritated as most of us might feel at being out of pocket we should spare a thought for the biggest losers this New Year's Day, the roughly 100,000 single parents - mostly women - who will be shifted from Parenting Payment on to Newstart allowance - a move which will cost some of the poorest people in Australia between $60 and $120 a week.