What I See From Where I Sit

This arrived in my inbox recently. Medications. A phone bill. A broken door lock. Ramadan coming. A person who has nowhere else to turn, as they always do.

I am Shahnaz, NZF Australia's National Distribution Manager. I read every single Zakat application we receive. And that letter stopped me, not because it was unusual, but because it wasn't.

I want to tell you what I see from where I sit, because I think most of our community has no idea.

The gap nobody talks about

In 2025, NZF Australia helped 631 people. I am genuinely grateful for every single one of them. But here is the number that keeps me up at night.

This only represents 0.3% of an estimated 200,000 to 270,000 Zakat-eligible Muslims in Australia.

We are reaching less than one in every three hundred people who need help. The rest are out there. Invisible. Unhelped. And for the most part, unknown to a community that, if it truly understood, would want to do something about it.

That is not a funding problem alone. It is an awareness problem. And it is why I am writing this.

"But they can get Centrelink"

This is the first thing people say to me. And I understand why. Australia has a welfare system. Surely it catches people who are struggling?

It does not. And it especially does not catch us.

JobSeeker pays $762 per fortnight, roughly $19,800 per year, well below the poverty line of around $27,000. In 2025, 134 NZF applicants were already receiving Centrelink payments and were still in genuine, documented hardship. The safety net has holes, and our community falls through them.

"But they can get government help" many can't

Then there are the people the system does not see at all.

Bridging visa holders. Asylum seekers. International students. Tourist visa holders. We estimate 30,000 to 50,000 Muslims in Australia have no access to Centrelink whatsoever. No work rights. No welfare. No safety net of any kind.

In 2025, 371 NZF applications, 16% of everything we received, were visa or migration-related cases. These are people entirely invisible to the mainstream system. They exist only because of organisations like ours and the Zakat of donors like you.

The Full Picture:

Consider the below figures

• Below the poverty line (including those on Centrelink, which itself sits below the Henderson Poverty Line) - 150,000 – 180,000
• No safety net at all (non resident visas, asylum seekers, students in hardship) - 15,000 – 30,000
• Working poor (above Centrelink threshold but below adequate living) - 20,000 – 40,000
• Broader Zakat categories (debt, new Muslims, displaced persons) - 13,000 – 23,000

These segments do not overlap. Someone below the poverty line who is also in debt is counted once only. The estimates are conservative and gives us a total range of 200,000 - 270,000.

This is not a coincidence. It is structural.

Muslim Australians face unemployment rates two to three times the national average. MENA-born Australians experience unemployment of 8 to 10%, compared to 3.5% nationally. Humanitarian visa holders face 40% unemployment five years after arrival. Studies show a 30 to 40% callback gap for Muslim-sounding names in job applications. Our families are larger, our costs higher, our margins thinner.

In the UK, 50% of Muslim households live below the poverty line. In France, 40%. Australia's 20 to 27% estimate is lower, reflecting our stronger welfare system, but it is real, it is structural, and it is ours to respond to.

What I see every day

I read the application from the sister who uses TikTok to supplement her Centrelink income, finding whatever she can. I read the application from the brother who makes dua to win the scratchies, because he genuinely sees no other way out. I read the mother who stretches $78 across an entire week for a family.

What I need you to understand

Zakat is not charity. It is a pillar of our deen, established by Allah because He knew that within every Muslim community, there would always be those who struggle and those who can help. We are both of those communities. At the same time. Right now.

Every year I do this work, the gap between what we can do and what I know is actually needed grows. It breaks me to watch that gap widen. It scares me. It worries me. And I cannot stay silent about it any longer.

If you have not yet calculated and given your Zakat this year, please do it now. And if you have already given, please share this with someone who has not.

Let's make sure we are there for them.

JazakAllahu Khayran

Shahnaz

National Distribution Manager

Data Sources

• Real Zakat applications received by NZF Australia in 2025 
• NZF Australia estimate based on ABS Census 2021 (Cultural Diversity Data), cross-referenced with ACOSS/UNSW Poverty in Australia Report 2023, ABS Migration Statistics, and Henderson Poverty Line 2024. Muslim population in Australia estimated at ~1,000,000 based on census growth projections. 
• Services Australia, JobSeeker Payment rate (2024–25). 
• Henderson Poverty Line 2024 (Melbourne Institute). The JobSeeker payment represents approximately 73% of the Henderson Poverty Line for a single adult. 
• ABS Labour Force Survey. Unemployment among MENA-born Australians is estimated at 8–10%, compared to 3.5% nationally. 
• Department of Home Affairs / RCOA research on humanitarian entrant employment outcomes at 5 years post-arrival. 
• Name-based employment audit studies conducted in the Australian labour market, cited in academic literature on ethnic discrimination in hiring.