Dozens of Australians have sent in their concerns about the issue to the ABC's You Ask We Answer election project, with many concerned about payment increases and how the issue ties in with social issues like poverty and domestic violence.

Your Newstart questions: How are major parties addressing a Newstart payment increase?

How are major parties addressing a Newstart payment increase? Which parties will increase Newstart which has not increased in real terms for 25+ years?

Which parties will increase Newstart which has not increased in real terms for 25+ years? Both major parties have a prominent domestic violence policy, however, victims of DFV are trapped in abusive situations due to the low rate of Newstart. Can the rate of Newstart be increased?

For Albury mother Emily Lightfoot, living with poverty is an all-consuming reality.

Every spare moment is spent thinking if she will have enough money to buy food for her son, or fill up her car, or if she will be able to afford an upcoming electricity bill.

The single mother is also being forced to move house, which means she will soon be spending nearly 60 per cent of her income on rent.

She said the move will likely force her to regularly attend foodbanks, compared to current sporadic visits.

"You think about it from when you get up to when you go to bed, it affects you in so many small ways — from being able to put food on the table, to having to turn down invitations to birthdays because you can't afford to buy a present," Ms Lightfoot said.

Ms Lightfoot was catapulted into poverty around the time her son was born eight years ago, due to a bank engineer fault, and then faced a separation from her partner.

"My son has grown up in extreme poverty, he knows not to ask for expensive things, he never writes lists to Santa — he knows what the situation is and he knows that buying food is more important.

"It's robbed him of his childhood in a way, and it's something that shouldn't be happening in a country like Australia."

A joint study between ACOSS and the University of NSW found just over three million people in Australia living below the poverty line, with many living on a staggering $135 per week below the poverty line.

The study found that those experiencing poverty the most are relying on government allowance payments such as Youth Allowance and Newstart.

How are the major parties addressing poverty?

Charmaine Crowe from ACOSS and Albury single mother Emily Lightfoot. ( Supplied: ACOSS )

Poverty in Australia has been pushed to centre stage, as social lobby groups push to raise the income for those on one welfare scheme that has not seen an increase in more than two decades.

The Australian Council of Social Service (ACOSS) has placed pressure on the Government to boost Newstart payments by little more than $10 a day, which would take the minimum payment from $280 to $355 a week.

Figures from the ABS show 722,923 Australians are on Newstart and surviving on $40 a day — a figure that lobby groups say is undignified.

"Which parties will increase Newstart, which has not increased in real terms for 25+ years?" — Jai, Gippsland, Victoria.

Despite a concerted effort from welfare groups in the lead-up to the 2019 Federal Election and numerous cross-party parliamentary inquiries, the unemployment benefit has not changed, and neither party has made any moves to address the issue.

The Coalition has ruled out raising the rate, and its current policies do not appear to address the issue at all.

Social services minister Paul Fletcher last month dismissed calls to increase the payment, and said the Government's current policy was appropriate.

While neither of the major parties has said it will raise the rate, Labor leader Bill Shorten has acknowledged the current scheme is driving people into poverty.

His party has merely promised to look into the issue, promising an analysis of the scheme to identify what parts of the system need to change.

Meanwhile, the Greens have recognised the urgency of the issue, promising to immediately raise Newstart and Youth Allowance by $75 per week.

Ms Lightfoot said the rise was the "bare minimum" needed to get by.

"I'd like to see an increase of more than $75 to Newstart, but that amount is the bare minimum needed to meet the basic costs of living if you're frugal and budget well," she said.

"We don't want to be perceived as making frivolous requests, but we're not asking for more than what people desperately need."

A structure that keeps people in poverty

Figures from the ABS show 722,923 Australians are on Newstart and surviving on $40 a day. ( ABC News. )

Regional, rural and remote Australia is the hardest hit by the issue, due to high rates of unemployment.

In Victoria, the Central Goldfields, La Trobe, Mildura, Mitchell, Loddon, Greater Shepparton, Moira and Benalla regions are among the most disadvantaged in the state.

The CEO of Shepparton social support service Family Care, David Tennant, said he believes the structure of Australia's welfare sector is keeping families and individuals in a cycle of disadvantage and poverty.

He shared his disappointment that neither of the major parties had made a significant commitment to increasing the Newstart payment, which had not risen in real terms in 25 years.

Mr Tennant said many Australians could not survive on the payment alone, and had to resort to family or emergency outreach — a problem that harmed single women with children more than other demographics.

"It's just a bizarre, slightly cruel conundrum that we're requiring people to go to government funded agencies to get emergency relief, when what really should be happening is they're paid a respectful amount of money that they can constantly survive on," he said.

Mr Tennant said the issue was devastating rural and regional communities, where unemployment was widespread, and had become a structural level of poverty almost impossible to escape.

"When it comes to something like Newstart and the fact it is so low, over time that level of poverty leads to a cycle of disadvantage." Mr Tennant said.

"I think there is a significant amount of disadvantage that is structural rather than behavioural.

"We're talking about intergenerational disadvantage, which is a reflection of the structures we use to support people being insufficient."

Charmaine Crowe, a senior social security advisor at ACOSS, said the rise was the bare minimum required to make ends meet.

ACOSS is also calling for a social security commission to look at the adequacy of the payments ongoing, and is calling for an increase to Commonwealth rent assistance.

"Thousands of people stand to benefit if this payment is increased, including helping local economies across the country," Ms Crowe said.

"We believe that this payment needs to be increased to help people get into paid employment — at the moment people are so swept up in their situation of financial crisis that they cannot put in the effort and energy required to get into paid work.

"They don't have enough to reskill, and that's what you need to find paid work — this is about helping people do that."