Changes to Dole recipients - more jobs applicatons + community hours
Well how will this go down with the majority of Aussies?
Here is article as behind paywall.
Coalition defends employment overhaul as critics warn it’s out of touch
The Australian
July 28, 2014
Jared Owens Reporter Canberra
Patricia Karvelas Victoria Editor
THE Abbott government has been accused of “demonising” the unemployed by imposing tough new requirements on jobseekers, as it warned nobody should be left “languishing on welfare”.
The reforms, revealed in The Australian, will compel jobseekers to conduct 40 job searches a month and carry out up to 25 hours a week of community work to keep their dole payments.
Search and work to keep the dole
Jobseekers younger than 30 will be asked to do 25 hours’ work a week; those aged 30-49 will be asked to do 15 hours’ work a week; and people aged 50-60 will be asked to do 15 hours a week of an approved activity.
Labor frontbenchers today said work-for-the-dole could make the unemployment problem worse, while Greens leader Christine Milne accused the government of “demonising” jobseekers.
Assistant Employment Minister Luke Hartsuyker, formally announcing the plan this morning, said the government aimed “to motivate jobseekers to leave no stone unturned in the pursuit of a job”.
“It is absolutely obvious that if you’re sitting at home not looking for work, you’re unlikely to get a job,” Mr Hartsuyker said.
“It is in no one’s interest to have jobseekers languishing on welfare.”
Mr Hartsuyker said most of the announcements could be introduced without legislation, although some changes would need to be passed through parliament.
Opposition employment spokesman Brendan O’Connor warned diverting jobseekers into community service could hamper their search for employment.
“There’s no point giving someone’s who’s spent 30 years in the work force who has been retrenched work experience. They’ve got experience, they need a job,” Mr O’Connor told ABC Radio.
“It can be counterproductive if they are engaging in activities that are irrelevant and are in fact taking them away from searching for work.”
Opposition assistant treasury spokesman Andrew Leigh said “ideological” programs such as work-for-the-dole “sound good but don’t actually deliver”.
“When your only credible study is one commissioned by the Prime Minister that showed that the program made the problem worse, then you might want to put in place some rigorously trialled evaluations rather than simply plough on ahead where ideology demands.”
Senator Milne said the proposal was “completely out of touch” with reality, noting the contraction in unskilled jobs around the country.
“At the very time that we need to be making that shift (to invest more in education and training), you’ve got the Abbott government just wanting to be cruel and punish people. It is wrong.”
Senator Milne said in regions of high unemployment, such as northwest Tasmania, young people would be unable to find 40 jobs to apply for.
“And (Employment Minister) Eric Abetz is telling them ‘go to Melbourne and get a job’. Well where are they going to live when they get to Melbourne? Where is the money going to come from? Six months living on nothing (and) they don’t have friends or relatives who can keep them.”
Almost $900 million will be spent on extending the work-for-the-dole scheme over the three years from next July.
The new system will create a “regional loading” for job providers, in recognition that labour-market conditions vary across the country.
Today marks the start of a month-long public consultation.
Mutual obligation has been extended to include jobseekers aged 50-59, while the new system will pool funds available for a new wage subsidy available for long-term unemployed.
Payments to job agencies will be changed to place greater emphasis on delivering employment rather than administration and process.
There will be four-, 12- and 26-week “outcome payments” to job providers, with higher levels of payments for achieving longer-term job outcomes for jobseekers with more complex needs, a move expected to generate wide support. Funding will be targeted to unemployed people who need the most support to find and keep a job. New wage subsidies will encourage employers to hire, train and retain jobseekers.
Work for the dole will be mandatory for all jobseekers younger than 50 unless they are working part-time or, in limited cases, undertaking training for a specific job that is in demand in their local area.
New subsidies are planned for mature-age workers and jobseekers younger than 30, as well as the long-term unemployed.
There are also myriad changes to improve the system, including a new employment-services contract that will be for five years, instead of the three previously offered.
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/policy/coalition-defends-employment-overhaul-as-critics-warn-its-out-of-touch/story-fn59noo3-1227004202651
I see they have included all ages but the older ones usually are doing some sort of voluntary work anyway and without them the meals on wheels and much else would collapse.
