The Australian Council of Social Service is using its latest report on pre-pandemic poverty to call for a permanent increase in welfare payments.

Dole payments have been doubled to help Australians cope with the economic fallout of coronavirus but will return to pre-coronavirus levels in September.

Two out of three people in a home where the main earner is unemployed were living below the poverty line before the coronavirus pandemic.

Australian households where mum was the main breadwinner were also twice as likely to live in poverty.

ACOSS acting chief executive Jacqueline Phillips said the doubling of social security payments had transformed people's lives.

"The government must now ensure that the pathway out of the pandemic is also a pathway out of poverty," Ms Phillips said.

The research was conducted in collaboration with the University of New South Wales using Australian Bureau of Statistics data from 2017-18.

It found a third of single mums and their children lived below the poverty line in Australia.

Nearly half the children of single parents lived in poverty, compared to 13 per cent of children with both parents.

Households relying on dole payments were five times more likely to live in poverty than those with breadwinners earning a wage.

Renters were more likely to live in poverty than home owners but half of public housing tenants were most at risk of living below the line.

"A snapback on childcare or income support risks trapping single mothers and their children in poverty," Ms Phillips said.

UNSW associate professor Bruce Bradbury said the report showed what could happen to more Australians if current welfare rates returned to pre-COVID 19 levels.

Australian Associated Press