Dole
How would you define a bonus? Odds are it’d be more than a couple of gold coins a week.
Bu that’s the sum and total of the Federal Government’s recently announced “battler’s bonus” – that’s an additional dole payment of four dollars per week to some of the country’s poorest people.
Four dollars is an insulting amount of money. It shows no genuine regard for the realities of the expensive cost of living in this country. In fact, it’s completely worthless.
Continue reading "A bonus that’s just a big fat waste of everyone’s time" »
On Tuesday around 100,000 single parents of children aged eight and over were shafted off - and I mean shafted - the parenting payment and onto the much lesser Newstart allowance.
Those who don’t work at all will be around $115 worse off a fortnight, while those who already work to supplement their support will lose 40 cents in each payment dollar, for every dollar they earn over $31 a week.
What a disgraceful turn of events for a Labor Government to expand the former Howard government’s retrograde targeting of single, low income families - some of the most financially vulnerable adults and children in our society.
Continue reading "I raised three men thanks to that payment Labor scrapped" »
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Achmed says:
@ marley- well said Read more »
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Achmed says:
@PJ .(2nd try at this post).....The NBN is no different to the way Telstra, Commonwealth Bank, Qantas, airports were “off the books” prior to being privatised. NBN is an incorporated company under corporations act. Read more »
As the saying goes, “If you think the system is working, ask someone who isn’t”.
In Australia, the person you ask is likely to be trying to pay, rent, bills, food and the costs of looking for work on a Newstart allowance of just $35 per day. They are likely to be struggling to survive, let alone return to the workforce, and to be increasingly isolated from the community.
Standing up for the rights of the unemployed has never been politically popular. But in Australia we have a situation where the gradual decline in unemployment benefits has left us with a Newstart allowance that is no longer enough to live on for more than a few weeks.
Continue reading "We should dole out more money for the unemployed" »
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stephen says:
Yes Ged, good idea, but please, go tell Caucus - you know, the crew who have shown Jules what to say and do - to not, whatever they do, encourage the legalization of banned substances : best to be merry by food alone. Read more »
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Phil says:
Rose. Would you agree to instead of increase a decrease in cash but an overall increase in vouchers only redeemable at discount food shops, so that the Australian taxpayers are not paying for grog, smokes and gambling. Not many Australians would want to see others suffer, but how much of… Read more »
In the recent Anti-Poverty Week we discovered, believe it or not, poverty has been falling.
The proportion of Australians in poverty increased from 11.9 per cent in 2003 to 14.5 per cent in 2007, but then declined to 12.3 per cent by 2010, according to the Australian Council of Social Service (ACOSS) publication Poverty in Australia.
If this sounds a bit fishy to you, you would be right. Common sense suggests that poverty should decrease when the economy is strong (as it was from 2003 to 2007), and increase when the economy gets weaker (as it did from 2007 to 2010).
Continue reading "The real solution to poverty: J-O-B-S, J-O-B-S, J-O-B-S" »
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PsychoHyena says:
@Fiddler, unfortunately I think it depends on the JSA as to whether they will willingly cover training costs. I had to back one into a corner to get them to cover training that got me employment within 2 months of completion. Read more »
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marley says:
@Rose - of course you pay your staff more than the minimum if they do more than the minimum. If you’ve got good staff you want to keep them. My point, though, was that you can’t expect the kinds of wages a big city employer will pay if you’re working… Read more »
Could you survive on $150 a week? Because that’s effectively what we’re asking our unemployed to do every single week.
A few weeks ago I spent a week living on the dole for a feature story. I had just $150 to spend on groceries, public transport, electricity bills, mobile phone, medications, photocopying of my resume and an outfit to wear to job interviews.
I had no car, no internet, no computer, no food from my pantry, no private health insurance, and no Foxtel. I had always thought the dole payment was rather generous. After all, how do all those surfies survive on it? But the current level of Newstart allowance is so grossly inadequate I was shocked.
Continue reading "Think the dole is generous? I did, until I tried living on it" »
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Jenny says:
Peter: one word: children. Where do you put those children while you travel to the fruit picking? Read more »
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BJ says:
@ Peter About 15 years ago, I sold a year of my life for $10 per hour, permanent casual, working on a banana farms. After tax, I received $330 per week. The dole was then about $180 per week. Effectively, I worked for $10 per day more than I could… Read more »
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" »
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Jim says:
Its tax payers problem because taxpayers allow such a dysfunctional system to be perpetuated all this time. Where does it say that it is not meant to be easy to recieve the dole? It should be easy for Australia’s Oligarchs to strip our land of the minerals and underground wealth… Read more »
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Lily says:
It is not the hardest job ever, right? You’re right, it’s not the hardest job in the world…but I’ve been a case manager and it HAS to work both ways if anything positive is going to come out of a person looking for work and the person charged with helping… Read more »
It’s easy to blame people for being outside the labour market or on its low-paid fringes. It’s easy when you’re passing judgment from a comfortable vantage point, well above the fray.
The members of my organisation, the St Vincent de Paul Society, however, are painfully close to the reality of poverty in a prosperous nation.
Every day, we see how hard it is to survive on social security payments. The people who have been left out of the economic prosperity that has been generated in this lucky country are waging a daily battle for survival. It’s a battle that is being waged from below the poverty line.
Continue reading "The cost of poverty is way more expensive than the dole" »
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jevareemnen says:
A great deal more when retail sellers were resulting in a huge gain by continuing to their clients unaware from the wholesale market. If you can’t afford a realistic National football league jersey it is easy to go a single action lower and buy a top-notch Football jersey. For instance… Read more »
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Banned-4-telling-the-truth says:
The best way to stop poverty is to CLOSE DOWN Centrelink completely. Then, people will just do whatever they want, like in Asia. setting up stores outside their houses, selling stuff, doing woking without licence and don’t pay taxes, becoming self-employed and self responsible, looking after their families etc. etc.… Read more »
There was a chilling line in a Daily Telegraph piece on girl gangs back in 2008. Reporter Lauren Williams had a 2.30am chat with a Glebe teen called “Carson” in the article.
“Carson” explained why she and her friends stole.
“If the government gave us more money then we wouldn’t have to rob people,” she said, apparently satisfied she had delivered an impregnable justification for purse snatching, shop lifting and mugging.
Continue reading "You’re not meant to be comfortable on the dole" »
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N says:
Holeymoley you said the right thing. The topic being discussed here is nebulous. As a result it doesn’t really go anywhere. You make it clear that the dole is one ofany service we pay for with our taxes. When I graduated with a business degree the economy was so bad… Read more »
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Bill says:
I was on the dole in Switzerland once, they paid 1500 a week (up to 2 years & only if you’ve paid into the fund), pretty good place to be unemployed. The amount you get is related to your previous job & how much tax you’ve paid in the past,… Read more »
Your task is simple. Here is $115.50. It must last one week. You have no savings, no assets, but thankfully you’ve already paid your rent. That’s about $16 a day to cover food, bills, transport, entertainment and hygiene products.
We hope you like never going out, watching television and that none of your loved ones ever require a birthday present. Hopefully you’re not someone who requires much medication or needs to go the Doctor. We do hope you like basic carbohydrates or can cope with the embarrassment of having to ask a charity for a food parcel.
Welcome to the world of Australia’s depressed, stigmatised and disempowered Newstart recipients.
Continue reading "La dole cheque vita is not so sweet on $16 a day" »
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Daniel says:
It’s not that easy. I have been unemployed for nearly 12 months in a regional area and without being to afford to run a car I have not been able to get a job (I previously worked in freight logistics for ten years). Can’t afford to retrain myself and centrelink… Read more »
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billfromthebush says:
Thats 115 too much in my opinion, get off your collective lazy fat arses and get to work. bludgers. Read more »
There’s no way taxpayers should be supporting fit young people to lounge around for years on the dole, smoking joints and listening to Pink Floyd.
And no one wants their hard-earned being spent on a wannabe writer who houseshares with other ‘creatives’ living the dream while we eke out a meagre office-bound existence, soothed only by Friday night drinks and dreams of what might have been.
And we’ll be damned if we pay tax after levy after carbon price while someone who has ‘self esteem’ issues can’t get out of bed before lunch.
Continue reading "Abbott’s new era of work for the proles" »
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Cynic says:
whats really ironic is that it was the Liberals who gave the youngsters a ‘youth allowance’ thereby making welfare seem normal, is it any wonder that they then go on the dole? Abbott also needs to understand disabilities a little better, a lot of people on disability pensions would love… Read more »
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john says:
You know “Conviction Kitchen” is a TV program ? It’s not real you know… ALL employees of licensed venues must pass a police check BY LAW. Please stop talking out of your backside. Read more »
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