Centrelink

John*, who was unemployed for almost five years, says despite having to go into his Job Services Australia provider in order qualify for benefits, they never really gave him much help.

“I would go into my JSA provider once a month, have a meeting with my case worker where I would have to prove I was actually looking for jobs. She would never have any jobs for me to apply for; she would never suggest any specific jobs I should apply for or have any suggestions on what jobs I could do. Let alone actually finding jobs for me or setting up interviews for me, which is what I thought they would do,” he said.

The Commonwealth Government’s Job Services Australia (JSA) program replaced the Coalition’s old Job Network and is a moderate improvement on the old system. However, the JSA system is largely failing. Department figures show only 8 per cent of JSA clients get full-time work each year. But it’s a system which has made some JSA provider owners into millionaires off taxpayer money.

Continue reading "The ultimate insult to genuine job seekers" »

This week The Punch features two Angry Cripples, both anonymous. It’s fair to say they have somewhat opposing points of view to say the least. We recommend reading this one first.

I am an angry cripple. No, I do not have a disability, but as the mother of a young woman with severe and multiple disabilities, I am as crippled by the cruel Australian disability support system as much as – and sometimes more than - many people with a disability themselves.

I have been the sole primary carer of my daughter since my divorce more than 20 years ago, with the result that - like hundreds of thousands of other sole primary carers - I subsist on the poverty line.

During the global financial crisis, when the government was throwing cash at families earning up to $110,000 a year and the widescreen TVs and handbags were rolling out shop doors, I looked at my life, my old and decrepit furniture, my second hand clothes and all the things about my health and life that desperately need work but which I have not been able to attend to because of lack of support services and/or my inability to pay.

Continue reading "Punch: If you think disability is bad, try full-time caring" »

There is a lot of merit to Tony Abbot’s proposal to tighten the compliance rules on Youth Allowance and Newstart Allowance recipients aged under 30 that would requiring them to work in areas experiencing labour shortages.

The public is generally unaware there is a thorough suitability test on the activities offered to jobseekers on income support. One of the components of the suitability tests involves a travel time rule.

The travel time rule says jobseekers that have the capacity for full time work do not have to take up employment or training if the travel time is more than 90 minutes. As a result, there are no requirements to move to areas experiencing labour shortages. 

Continue reading "Abbott’s dole plan can work, here’s how" »

A cash giveaway to millions of pensioners last year has triggered an outbreak of crook backs. The nation has for years watched on as a growing army of pensioned-off disabled workers, many of them dispirited middle-aged blokes, has emerged. 

But it can now be revealed the Rudd Government’s generosity on September 20, 2009 in giving Australians on the Age Pension and Disability Support Pensions a one-off pay rise of to $65 a fortnight had the unintended result of adding tens of thousands of new recruits to the army disabled workers.

Centrelink documents obtained under Freedom of Information laws reveal how in the six months after the pay rise a further 43,117 new Disabled Support Pensioners joined the ranks. In October alone, in the weeks after the pension pay boost, 8,615 applicants were approved.

Continue reading "Another 43,117 Aussies are suddenly disabled" »

This cannot be happening, I thought as I filled in Centrelink’s Newstart application form.

How could I have sunk this low?

I’m well educated, resourceful and have been a language teacher, conveyancer, legal secretary and newspaper journalist.

Continue reading "When the sea change hits a sand bar" »

With the beginning of the new financial year there are invariably small changes to our lives.

Many of these revolve around money. Things like tax cuts, rate changes and increases in family allowance benefits.

The middle of the year also gives us time for more personal reflection: it’s July and I still haven’t taken the bottles from my April birthday party to the recycling bin – just a random example.

But here is a list of ways that things have changed today and The Punch’s evaluation of whether we’re better off for it.

1. Crappy tax cuts introduced

Kevin Rudd committed to these tax cuts before the last election and now has to go through with them.

The promise was made in the heady days of economic boom time when we enjoyed daily joy rides in limousines with Paris Hilton and wore extinct animals on our heads. Now we’re dressing in possums and the best celebrity we can muster is Kochie giving some sage financial advice: “Here’s one folks, ever thought of knitting your dinner?”

Continue reading "For better or for worse: 10 things that changed today" »