Social Services Minister Amanda Rishworth said the proposal would have unintended consequences and do nothing for the 77 per cent of recipients who don’t access the income-free threshold.

The government announced a $40 a fortnight increase to welfare payments in the May budget.

Opposition spokesman Michael Sukkar said raising the rate amounted to paying people more to not work.

Instead, increasing the amount people could earn before their benefits were cut would encourage them to seek more part-time work.

The proposed change would allow JobSeeker recipients to take home $300 a fortnight while still receiving full benefits.

Rishworth said the proposal did nothing to address the barriers to employment many people on income support faced.

“Our conservative estimates are that with a doubling of the income-free area, there would be an additional 50,000 people who would become eligible for JobSeeker overnight because the thresholds at which they are cut off would increase,” she said.

“This measure could actually encourage a longer-term reliance on casual work and JobSeeker rather than a transition into the workforce.”

Greens acting leader Mehreen Faruqui said while opposition to raising JobSeeker was atrocious, the government’s proposed increase was woefully inadequate.

“It works out to be around $4 a day, which is hardly enough to get a cup of coffee and it won’t help anyone pay their rent,” she said.

“We will definitely not stand in the way of this increase, but we know that it’s not enough.

“The government must increase JobSeeker to above the poverty line in this cost of living crisis (because) so many people are being hurt and harmed, people are really struggling to put food on the table.”

-with AAP