The unemployment support payment was increased by $550 a fortnight at the start of the pandemic but that is now reduced to $250.

The overall payment will be about $800 a fortnight from Monday.

Uniting chief executive Bronwyn Pike said this meant people on JobSeeker would continue to live below the poverty line.

"That makes it incredibly difficult for people to pay their rent and eat, let alone have a mobile phone which you need to have contact Centrelink or try to find work," she said.

"With the unemployment rate becoming much higher due to factors that people have no control over, we don't think now is the time to pull the rug out from under people. We think it is time to give people a leg up."

Centacare chief executive Tony Fitzgerald said the reductions to JobSeeker would mean many people would not be able to afford to pay their rent.

This is particularly the case for those who may have already been living in a rental and affording payments with their wage, but lost their job when COVID-19 hit.

Anglicare's rental affordability snapshot released in August showed a single person on the reduced JobSeeker payment from September 25 could afford 0.2 per cent of all Victorian rental properties.

"It will put pressure on people and there is not enough social housing stock around to be able to assist people whose primary source of income is a Centrelink benefit of some kind," Mr Fitzgerald said.

"They have still got to pay an electricity bill and a gas bill, they have got to put fuel in their car and they have got to buy food to sustain themselves. None of those things have got any cheaper.

"I think it is guaranteed we will have more people approaching not for profits and community service organisations to assist with their daily expenses."

Salvation Army Ballarat team leader John Clonan said people on JobSeeker had been able to feel more dignity while receiving the full coronavirus supplement and that would now be stripped away.

"I think people will be a bit anxious about how they are going to manage with kids going back to school and Christmas coming up," he said.

Anglicare community development worker Kim Boyd said the Ballarat service was prepared to see more people presenting for emergency relief and to its breakfast programs.

All service providers The Courier spoke to said JobSeeker should be retained at the higher coronavirus supplement level until work opportunities increased.

They said the permanent JobSeeker rate should be raised above the previous Newstart level.

Treasurer Josh Frydenberg has defended the timing of the coronavirus supplement cut, saying the government's changes allow people on the payment to earn more if they also have a job.

Job seekers can now earn $300 a fortnight without payments being affected.

The JobKeeper wage subsidy also faces changes from Monday, dropping from $1500 to $1200 a fortnight for full-time staff and to $750 for people who worked less than 20 hours a week before the pandemic.

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