By Natasha Simons
Attacks on jobs, wages and welfare are coming thick and fast under the Howard government, the latest being an attempt to get more young homeless people off social security benefits.
On May 1, the federal government announced the formation of a prime ministerial task force on youth homelessness, to be chaired by David Eldridge of the Salvation Army. The aim of the task force is to examine whether the youth homeless allowance is too accessible. It comes at a time when some parent groups claim that the easy availability of the allowance encourages young people to leave home.
The task force will oversee a two-year homeless youth pilot program, during which young homeless people will receive an allowance for six weeks on condition that, during that time, they allow a welfare agency to report on their circumstances and, where possible, to try to mediate with the youth's parents to "reconcile" their differences. The welfare agency will then make a recommendation to the Department of Social Security about whether the benefit should be continued.
But will the task force really improve the situation for homeless young people? For a start, its central purpose is to see how many homeless young people can be stripped of their social security allowance and forced to rely on their families.
"Suspicions that this welfare payment is not just assisting homeless youths but perpetuating this problem have been well documented", editorialised the Australian on May 3 — without citing any of the "documentation". "It is important that welfare payments do not become a substitute for family support and do not serve as a disincentive for family support."
You would think from this that young people are leaving home in droves, sometimes encouraged by their parents, because they can live comfortably on a DSS homeless allowance.
However, of the estimated 50,000 homeless young people in Australia, DSS figures for January show that only 7296 are claiming the independent homeless rate. Welfare agencies say many homeless teenagers are eligible for the allowance but don't receive it either because they don't know about it, or don't have the skills to apply for it. The director of Hanover Welfare Services in Melbourne estimated that around 45% of homeless youth it helped last year were entitled to the allowance but hadn't applied for it.
Most homeless young people aren't receiving any allowance at all, yet the focus of the task force is not on how to help them, but how to get those few who are receiving some assistance off the system. Howard's intention to cut already underfunded welfare programs is clear.
While parent groups have claimed that it's easy to fabricate stories to get the allowance, and that this "incentive" destroys the family unit, Julian Pocock, the president of the Australian Youth Action and Policy Coalition, says most homeless young people come from backgrounds with a history of physical, emotional or sexual abuse.
He said that while some homeless youth may benefit from contact with a welfare agency, setting up a program which is hinged on welfare agency intervention to reconcile the homeless and their parents will mean that many may not apply for the allowance. This will add more young homeless people to the thousands without any financial support at all.
Life for most young homeless is no picnic; it is usually taken up in the constant search for shelter and food. High unemployment already means jobs are scarce, and homeless youth will be the last to get jobs, given the need for a fixed address to apply. At the same time, the cost of education limits accessibility. The homeless allowance rate for young people is well below the poverty line, and certainly not a financial "incentive" to leave home.
Given that the family is the main source of financial support in this society, and supposedly also the main source of emotional support and direction in life, leaving home is likely to be the result of serious and unbearable circumstances for the young person involved.
If the government is serious about helping the homeless, it should start by asking why so many young people feel they have to leave home, mostly for squats or the streets, and what can be done to assist them. Increasing the amount and availability of homeless allowance should be the absolute minimum reform, rather than a program which threatens to cut young people off welfare if they don't engage in "reconciliation" with their parents. An education campaign about how to apply for the allowance should also be conducted among the homeless.
There is a desperate need for more housing. A survey by the Youth Accommodation Association in NSW found that 64% (or 9000) of those seeking temporary refuge in the first six months of 1989 had to be turned away due to lack of facilities. Since then the situation has not improved. Housing should be the first priority in addressing the situation faced by homeless youth. Funding should also be increased to improve facilities to assist young survivors of domestic violence and sexual abuse — the reason why many youth leave home.
The funds for these and other measures to assist homeless youth could easily come from even a slight increase in the corporate tax rate. Cutting social expenditure in this crucial area under the guise of "reconciling" families will not solve the problem of youth homelessness. It will exacerbate it.
[Natasha Simons is the national coordinator of Resistance.]