About 50,000 families, including 110,000 children, will have to wait three years to get access to family payments under Federal Government welfare cuts targeting new migrants.

New arrivals in Australia face a three-year wait before they can have access to family tax benefit payments, paid parental leave and the allowance for carers under new laws before Parliament. Department of Social Services officials revealed at a Senate estimates hearing in Canberra yesterday that 50,000 families were expected to serve the new waiting period for family tax benefit A by 2021.

An estimated 30,000 individuals will have to wait for other welfare payments.

The officials also told the hearing that migrant groups and settlement services were not consulted before the introduction of the legislation, which will extend the two-year wait for Newstart and Youth Allowance to three years.

Defending the $1.3 billion Budget savings measures, International Development Minister Concetta Fierravanti-Wells said the Federal Government believed skilled migrants should be “well-placed” to support themselves through work, existing resources or family support.

“Plenty of people have come to this country and not got a cent in terms of support, and today are some of our most wealthy in Australia,” Senator Fierravanti-Wells said.