About one in eight Australians live in poverty,according to ACOSS's 2020 Poverty in Australia Overview.
"We want to support each other. It's who we are as a nation. But our economy is leaving people behind,with persistently high poverty rates despite decades of uninterrupted economic growth,"ACOSS chief executive Cassandra Goldie said.
Dr Goldie said Australians living in poverty include young people trying to start their working lives,single parents and older people who came up against age discrimination.
The ACOSS/UNSW'2020 Poverty in Australia Overview'report set the poverty line at 50 per cent of the median household disposable income. It used 2017-18 data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics - the latest year for which household income information is available.
It found that housing costs grew"strongly"in the decade to 2017,especially among low income households. Between 2005 and 2017,housing costs for the lowest 20 per cent of working-age households (those under 65 years) grew by 42 per cent compared to 15 per cent growth for the middle 20 per cent of households.
The report also said that the"freezing"of the dole,which has not seen a rise in real terms since 1994,together with the transfer of some single parents from the Parenting Payment to the lower Newstart Allowance,"increased poverty and the depth of poverty".
Research on job availability by Anglicare released last Octoberfound there are five low-skilled applicants competing for every entry-level job.
"The low rate of Newstart,a lack of jobs and unaffordable housing are locking people in poverty,"Dr Goldie said.