Cost-of-living budget relief to include single parents

Treasurer Jim Chalmers says the federal budget will help those "doing it tough" with $14.6 billion of cost-of-living relief to include a lift in single parent support.

A day ahead of Dr Chalmers delivering his second budget, the government announced that from September 20 single parents will no longer have to transfer to JobSeeker when their youngest child turns eight.

A base rate of $922.10 per fortnight will apply until their youngest child turns 14.

Those parents currently on JobSeeker will receive an increase to payments of $176.90 per fortnight, if parliament passes legislation to enact the changes.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who announced the proposed change in Perth on Monday, said children of single-parent families deserved greater support.

"I know first-hand what it's like to grow up with a single mum doing it tough and we want to make sure that the children of single-parent families have the best opportunities in life," he told reporters.

Dr Chalmers said the budget would balance cost-of-living relief with responsible management of spending.

"We're confident what we've done here is provided some cost-of-living relief for people doing it tough, but conscious that we've got this inflationary challenge in our economy," Dr Chalmers told ABC Radio.

"We need to be responsible about what we spend, and that's what we've done."

While also rolling out power bill relief, cheaper medicines and tax incentives for electrification and energy efficiency upgrades, the government has found $17.8 billion in savings and will reap $2.4 billion in extra revenue from taxes on offshore LNG producers.

Opposition finance spokeswoman Jane Hume said the only way to provide genuine relief for struggling families was for the government to rein in its spending and tackle inflation, which was sitting at seven per cent.

"Getting inflation down is the only policy that would provide the cost-of-living relief to all Australians," she said.

Senator Hume said the government had palmed off its responsibility to help bring down inflation to the Reserve Bank.

The Greens have taken aim at the possibility of a $40-a-fortnight JobSeeker increase that would equate to a "paltry" extra $2.85 a day. 

A combination of higher revenues and lower payments is expected to allow the government to deliver the first budget surplus in 15 years, but the bottom line is set to deteriorate from there.

The largest calls on the budget include health, aged care, defence, disability services and interest on debt.

Australians can expect a 0.75 per cent increase in real wages in 2023/24, reflecting the combination of rising wages and falling inflation.