By Susan Lazlo
In moves to penalise people who are not able to find work, the federal government announced plans to save $100 million by introducing a "dole diary" and set up a "dob in a dole bludger" hot line for employers to report job seekers who do not turn up for interviews and employees who deliberately "get themselves sacked".
Social security minister Senator Jocelyn Newman announced on July 15 that all dole recipients will be required to fill out a job-seeker diary to record details of every employer they contacted seeking work. At the moment this has to be recorded on the fortnightly unemployment benefit form submitted to the Department of Social Security. According to Newman, about 19,500 people claim unemployment benefits each year "under false pretences".
The diary must be kept for 12 weeks and may be inspected at any time by officials from DSS, who may also telephone employers for verification.
Opponents of the scheme argue that the new provisions, to come into effect in August, will do nothing to help the unemployed find work. According to Michael Raper director of the Welfare Rights Centre in Sydney, "all the scheme does is raise the hurdle so people will trip up".
Raper told Green Left that filling in dairies isn't the main problem, although "it will adversely affect those with language, literacy and mental health problems" His concern is "the government's wish to save $100 million from the department, something it can only do if it cuts 200,000 people off the dole for six weeks each a year".
"Most people find work through their own networks and informal channels. However, this will not be counted as looking for work", he said.
Raper disagrees with Newman that employers will not have more paperwork. "The employer contact certificate will mean that employers will have keep records of people who call them looking for work. And, of course, the employer's advice to the department will be weighted a lot more heavily than the unemployed person's."
Australian Council of Social Services president Robert Fitzgerald said job seekers already had to prove that they were actively seeking work to be entitled to benefits.
Julian Pocock, Australian Youth Policy and Action Coalition executive officer, said that the dole bludger hot line had identified less than 20 cases of fraud from the first 300 calls during a trial in Tasmania. Not one of the 20 people were found to have breached the regulations and many employers complained that they were being used as police by the department.
Natasha Simons, national coordinator of the socialist youth organisation Resistance told Green Left that "the government is pushing the myth that the unemployed are 'bludgers' when the real problem was a lack of jobs".
In 1995 the unemployment rate was 8.5% compared to 1.7% in 1970. The long-term unemployed as a percentage of total unemployment was 32% in 1995 compared to 4.5% in 1970. In January 1996, the unemployment rate for 15-19 year-olds was 28%.
"Despite the high rate of youth unemployment, the Coalition government is trying to shift the blame away from itself to those who either haven't found work, or who are not prepared to work for a pittance under terrible conditions", Simons concluded.