This open letter to the Minister of Social Services, Scott Morrison was released on April 20.
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On behalf of the many Australians who believe in the importance of a fair and equitable welfare system, we the undersigned write to voice our strong objections to the harmful and damaging legislation currently before the Senate, which would introduce a six-month waiting period for unemployment benefits for people under 30.
We also wish to highlight our concerns over the government’s decision to introduce harsh requirements from 1 July 2015, which will:
• subject all Newstart recipients who fail to attend their “Job Search” appointment to stronger penalties, which will result in a portion of their payment permanently withheld unless a “reasonable excuse” is provided;
• require all “job ready” Newstart recipients to work for the dole after six months of receiving Newstart benefits — formerly it was one year;
• increase work for the dole requirements to 25 hours per week — formerly it was 15 hours — for those aged under 30;
• require about 37,000 mostly Indigenous job seekers in remote areas aged 18-49 to undertake work for the dole activities for 25 hours a week for most of the year.
We are united in opposing the government’s proposal to introduce a six-month waiting period for many Newstart and Youth Allowance recipients under 30 years of age. Considering that the Department of Social Services has set aside $229 million in “emergency relief” to assist job seekers under 30 with money for food and shelter should the legislation pass, it must be obvious that this measure will cause severe and extreme hardship for many job seekers under 30.
We believe the proposition is so bad that it should be rejected and no compromise proposal accepted. No set of complex “exemptions” will make this policy acceptable to the Australian community.
The extra strain this policy will place on the already over-burdened emergency relief services will be felt strongly across Australia. We strongly oppose this punitive approach to the unemployed and urge the government to raise the level of the Newstart Allowance to ensure all Newstart recipients can, at a bare minimum, live above the poverty line — defined by ACOSS to be $400 per week for a single adult.
Currently, the Newstart Allowance is $280 per fortnight below the poverty line. Clearly, care must be taken not to push the already disadvantaged deeper into poverty and further away from entering employment.
The government’s plan to financially penalise Newstart recipients who fail to attend Job Search interviews without a “reasonable excuse” — which passed the Senate in December with Labor Party support — will effectively take money out of the hands of Australia’s most disadvantaged and vulnerable. This we cannot accept.
Judging by the current numbers of Newstart recipients being breached for failing to attend Job Search interviews, this change will financially penalise about 1.4 million Newstart recipients per year. Disturbingly, it is the privately owned and operated job service providers who will be responsible for breaching job seekers and reporting them to Centrelink.
We point out in the strongest terms that placing more powers in the hands of job service providers contradicts the government’s Guide to Social Security Law, which clearly states that "Employment services providers do not make compliance decisions under social security law".
The perverse economic incentives offered to job service providers under the government’s $5.1 billion “Employment Services 2015” system further weakens the position of Newstart recipients in their dealings with job service providers.
On a broader note, we are deeply troubled by the government’s harsh overall attitude toward unemployed Australians.
Considering the many difficulties facing the unemployed today — from the fact that according to the government’s own figures there are 11 job seekers for every job vacancy, to the reality that the Newstart benefit is only 64% of the poverty line and has not been increased in real terms since 1994 — the government’s decision to direct further punishments against the unemployed is a policy that will only serve to push them deeper into poverty and further away from entering employment.
The nation-wide expansion of the work for the dole program, scheduled to commence on 1 July, is yet another example of the punitive approach to unemployed people that fails to create one single job for unemployed Australians. The only lasting solution to Australia’s growing level of unemployment — currently at a 12-year high and widely expected to increase further — is government-administered job creation.
We ask you, for the sake of the 850,000 Australians currently receiving Newstart or Youth Allowance, and for the good of Australian society more broadly, to withdraw the legislation proposing a six-month waiting period for unemployment benefits for job seekers under 30.
In its place, we demand the government conduct an extensive program of consultation with those with lived experience of unemployment and their advocates to create the best and most effective policy to meaningfully support unemployed Australians into secure and fulfilling work.
[This letter was signed by Anti-Poverty Network SA; Australian Greek Welfare Society; Australian Pensioners Voice Inc.; Australian Unemployment Union; Australian Manufacturing Workers Union; Combined Pensioners & Superannuants Association; Council of the Aged; Ethnic Communities’ Council of Victoria; Federation of Greek Elderly Citizens Clubs; Housing for the Aged Action Group; Industry Fund Services; Maritime Union of Australia (Veterans); Melbourne Unitarian Peace Memorial Church; Polish Community Council of Victoria; Rail Tram & Bus Union (retired members); SIMPla (Stop Income Management in Playford); Shelter South Australia; Victorian Trades Hall Council; National Council of Single Mothers and their Children (Victoria); Willing Older Workers Inc.; Ethnic Community Broadcasting Association of Victoria (3ZZZ).]
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