Income Management proposed for all seniors except aged pensioners
In yet another Govt inquiry headed by mining magnate Andrew ‘Twiggy‘ Forrester, it is recommended that all Australians On benefits such as DSP and Newstart be placed on income management. This includes all seniors except those on the aged pension. This comes shortly after the Govt commissioned McClure Report which proposes many DSP pensioners placed on a Newstart like payment.
Pensioner educational supplement will cease as of 1January 2015.
If you are on a DSP - Is it not possible to get a job in something with using a computer perhaps a Minister's Assistant - you seem very good in these fields.
Shame to have someone with your obvious talent being wasted
It must be very hard and frustrating for you having to live on such pittance - I feel for you.
Abby I think Bookwym mentioned he has Cancer and regularly needs Chemo - bit hard to find any employment or find an employer willing to take you on in those circumstances - be pretty ill quite frequently. DSP would seem appropriate.
I find it commendable that he is participating in the forum, our gain.
Viv
A lot of people do have cancer including myself Phyl and Pete and are on chemo treatment yet we continue to live our lives to the fullest.
Just because you are on DSP does not mean you cannot do part time work which is available even recently Andrew was looking
You do not realize what pittance DSP is and how part time work could be of benefit finnacially as well as mentally.
I think that Bookwyrm may not be aware of the opportunities that are out there which is sad - hence my suggestion.
Of course Centrelink would offer Bookwyrm far greater selection of part time positions.
Oh well, judging by the responses I see no future for more and more generations of Aboriginal children. More and more will die but at a quicker rate now that they are into the drugs as well as alcohol.
The labor left will milk the aboriginal cash cow for all it's worth. To protect its own self interest the left would rather see indigenous people remain in poverty.
Dont teach them how to fish, keep feeding them left over fish bait
Twiggy today
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/opinion/we-have-a-mutual-obligation-to-end-the-welfare-trap/story-e6frg6zo-1227010740214
ONE-THIRD of all government spending is on welfare and welfare-related social security. That’s a massive $131 billion last year and growing year by year.
Australia is becoming welfare-dependent and each of us must bear responsibility. Welfare is becoming a destination and a trap for too many of our fellow Australians.
Yesterday I released with Tony Abbott the Creating Parity Review. It is the first holistic strategy to remove the indigenous disparity for all time from Australia. Of course this is impossible without addressing the huge indigenous disadvantage caused by that very same welfare trap.
The recommendations are considered by many experts, both practical and academic, to be powerful enough to bring the disparity to an end if implemented together. This will remove inherent indigenous disadvantage once and for all.
As I discovered in writing this review, the despair of disparity does not lie in indigeneity, but that our First Australians, in large measure, like all vulnerable Australians, have fallen prey to poor government policy and policy implementation, the soft bigotry of low expectations and the grip of a cash welfare system that encourages poor short-term decision-making. The review team and I travelled Australia, read almost 400 submissions and listened to hundreds tell us that welfare is debilitating. I have learnt government needs policies to ensure our kids go to school and that our country needs a welfare system that doesn’t give up on our people.
It was on this journey that I encountered two critical truths. The first is the disparity comes to an end between first and other Australians with a decent education; in fact, indigenous women with degrees have higher employer outcomes than non-indigenous women. The second was that mutual obligation of welfare recipients to welfare payers is critical to help the vulnerable out of the welfare trap.
Mutual obligation is an abstract concept but is easy to understand. When parents receive family tax benefits for raising a family and sending their kids to school, surely they have a mutual obligation to actually send their kids to school. When people receive welfare, this money is intended to help people up, not simply to deliver handouts. The intention isn’t to give up on them but facilitate them into, or back into, employment. Is it unreasonable this money not be used for illicit drug or alcohol addictions?
Do people NOT understand that there are fewer and fewer people working to provide the taxes to support those on welfare. The mining boom is over and less taxes coming from there. Just bash the government who are trying to balance the budget. We cannot go on and on borrowing money from overseas (with the huge interest bill) forever. The money has to be there to pay for welfare.
Even Labor know this and if they are successful at the next election I will be most interested to see how they are going to get us back into surplus. The surplus we kept being promised by Swan but which he never delivered.
The problem is that we have become a welfare dependant country and expect the taxpayers to cough up all the time. It is not government money it is taxpayer money which funds welfare. Goverment have the job of managing the money and we know how well Labor did in office that is one reason they were kicked out!
This government certainly seems to be demonising welfare recipients and the strategy seems to be directed toward getting them off paymnets - even if it means shaming them into work. There is no doubt that many rort the system and are happy to have been very long term welfare recipients, but government is punishing the innocent.
Several years ago, I found myself unemployed and needed Centrelink assistance - that was a real eye opener. No longer do Centrelink help you find work, they flog you to find work yourself. They and their contractors do virtually nothing to help, but if you ask for assistance, they punish you by "helping" with training. The course are mandatory (or you lose benefits) and often waste already precious and limited financial resources.
I was general manager of several Credit Unions in my day and Centrelink "helped" me by sending me on courses to show me how to write a letter of application, prepare a resume, learn to read through classified ads in newspapers to identify which jobs I might be able to do etc. It was like sending a brain surgeon to learn how to apply bandaids.
Proposed measures by government just seem a continuation of these unhelpful policies.
I knew there was something in my memory regarding Twiggy and bussing in kooris being paid to vote but it was a vague .
from Crikey 2011
Fortescue are currently seeking a land use agreement from native title holders to allow the mining giant to build a new iron ore mine in the Pilbara. With negotiations at a stalemate and a Federal Court judgement looming, Forrest has attempted to strike a deal with a breakaway group of 200 Yindjibarndi people.
Forrest and a group of FMG lawyers and executives held a meeting last month in Roebourne last month in an attempt to secure an agreement with the breakaway group. In the video native title owner the Yindjibarndi Aboriginal Corporation express repeated concerns over how the meeting was conducted.
Yindjibarndi Aboriginal Corporation CEO Michael Woodley says the video helps to depict the difficulties of an indigenous group in negotiating a land use agreement.
“At the end of the day the video shows exactly how Twiggy Forrest and his company behaved on the day,” he told Crikey. “What they were doing was out of order in terms of a process which is supposed to be respecting native title groups and our discussion for any land use agreement.”
Meanwhile, the PR battle is hotting up over the native title deal. As Crikey reported yesterday, Cameron Morse recently edited the mining giant’s Wikipedia page to remove all references to the dispute and the video. Forrest is also facing some criticism for his GenerationOne indigenous unemployment program.
great native title swindle
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6w_fB7e0WCY
The federal government’s welfare and social security bill — the single largest category of public spending by far — comes to $145.8 billion this year and is projected to rise more than 16 per cent by 2018 to $169.6bn, nearly 36 per cent of total expenses.
Such massive aggregates obscure the system’s problematic and insidious complexity — the Department of Human Services for instance, which includes Centrelink, has more than 30,000 staff. Paring this back might prove a more feasible political aim than reducing the overall cost.
Almost five million Australians receive at least one of these payments — from the age and disability pensions with more than three million recipients to the little known Bereavement Allowance and Special Benefit (“for people in severe financial hardship who … cannot receive another payment”), which goes to fewer than 15,000 people.
Taken together, their eligibility criteria, withdrawals rates, taxation statuses, interaction with each other and the equally complex income tax system are about to overwhelm the Income Security Integrated System — the computing system established about 30 years ago to calculate and administer welfare.
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/features/welfare-reform-should-begin-with-tackling-complexity-not-random-cuts/story-e6frg6z6-1227010669115
For anyone interested in the problems of our welfare system this is a must read . We need a bi partisan approach . Not to stuff around at the edges but at least start by means testing all govt payments .
Dorian
To paraphrase an annoying twit . Tell us what you really think ?
I reckon the govt should means test negative gearing and restrict it new buildings only exclude established homes . The govt should manage fuel subsidies to make sure ot is not being abused . Same goes for family trusts which are open to abuse and tax avoidance . In fact Australia like most OECD countries should reintroduce a wealth , departure or death tax for estates above a large sum . Maybe a couple of million would suffice but leave out the family home . What scope there is for micro management to recoup lost revenue from tax concessions to the well off . I am sure the ones advocating management for the needy ( nanny state ) would agree to the same deal . After all we are all fellow citizens concerned only with good social and economic policy , salt of the earth and no agendas .
And reexamine tax conscessions on loading up super to huge amounts, revert to Labor idea of 5% tax on super for earnings over $100k pa.
It's notable the budget was void of any of these measures, with only a small and temporary tax increase on quite large incomes.
If you want engage in discussion on topics that are raised by articles put up it would help if you read them first .
We already know of your views on the topics you raise above.
We don't know your views on our complex tax/welfare system.
That delivers to those not in need but not enough to those in need .
To unravel will need a bi partisan approach.
Dorian
Do as I say not as I do is no recommendation or advice worth heeding . More so from an Abbottophile .
Thank you for your intelligent input to the discussion .
Your embarrassment at your suggestion that Abbott would wish for a tragedy involving Australians is becoming hysterical .
pete, the biggest gifts from oz taxpayers goes to big corporations, especially the miners. these foreign corporations get the most welfare from generous australians. and we also allow the big boys to take most of their mega profits overseas without paying much tax at all.
generous people, we aussies.
The new govt is stamping on corporate welfare it refused to subsides large Japanese and American corporations here for car productions we pored billions into a wasted project by both sides of politics , the refused to support a subsidiary of coca cola . The problem of corporate tax avoidance is real and needs a international approach which the government is doing.
However the post I put up was about our tangled mess of welfare which is not delivering it's intended purpose and needs fixing ..can only be done on a bi partisan agreement.,
Dorian
My input has been my thoughts and words . Yours has been from The Australian , copy and paste . The thread is about income management and I have discussed this . You have regurgitated texts from various sources . Being an abbottophile this is understandable , thinking for yourself is unfamiliar territory . What would you do without Menzies House etc to direct you ?
Oh please when ever have you expressed an opinion you have spent the last few days denying that you said that Abbott wished for a tragedy involving Australians but it was a cut and paste of someone else's opinion .
Grow up ..,
If you are going to make accusations about what geomac said, it might be credible if you provide a link - else you are just trolling.
How many times do you want me to post the remarks it must be now what six .
yes , you have made accusations several times, I see that but I have just been thru this thread and could not find anything resembling your trolling claim.
With this downing of the airplane, he has turned a tragedy into an atrocity and a media event at the same time. Apparently he's on the phone to Moscow every morning, directing Putin as to what to do next. Now we are sending 50 police into a war zone to protect lumps of twisted metal.
Abbott must lie awake, hoping for a war he can send troops to, or even better, another tragedy involving Australians.
With Abbott, its all about politics. He hasn't the foggiest idea about politics, instead he punches his way about in the fog, hoping to connect with "his people" who have determined (95%) of them) they they don't want "Dear Leader", his budget, his treasurer, his chest-thumping military grief, and his belief that all life's problems can be solved with a hammer.
geimacs comment 25th July 11.48 on the thread 28 Australians killed by Russians
for the last time...
Gerry if you can't be nice, then stop posting.
Sick of reading you bitter posts
youre the one trolling Pete, just like Foxy with Phyl
does your mummy know you are playing with her computer ?
Typical troll response.
Keep on trolling big little man
Gerry
Dorian is unable to supply a link or post to back up his lie because there is none . On the other hand I have put up evidence that the remark in question was from the comments section after an article on Fairfax media along with the link to said article .
The proof as they say is in the pudding .
What you didn't post it ?
Last time I posted it you complained that I putting it up again . No satisfying you is there . Do not bother to apologise as you are a recidivist in acts of this nature and no doubt will do it again . People with your character faults are unable to control their natural instincts for long .
Funny how the troll edits a copy and paste to omit the source and my comment about the article and reference to a comment , one of some hundred odd . Well not funny just deliberate manipulation by a person unable or unwilling to man up to being a person without integrity or honesty .
One of 379 comments on an article about death . A very good article .
Frankly, Toney Abbott has moved from telling us who should we care about when they're alive, to who to care about when they're dead. He was devastated by the 4 "pink batt" deaths and felt obligated to run the 5th inquiry to see if he could pin it on Labor.
He was devastated by the "1000 refugee deaths", enough to prevent any solution until he got into power. He wasn't too devastated by their deaths in custody or suicide, but he offered them money to go home and be persecuted, so that's OK.
With this downing of the airplane, he has turned a tragedy into an atrocity and a media event at the same time. Apparently he's on the phone to Moscow every morning, directing Putin as to what to do next. Now we are sending 50 police into a war zone to protect lumps of twisted metal.
Abbott must lie awake, hoping for a war he can send troops to, or even better, another tragedy involving Australians.
With Abbott, its all about politics. He hasn't the foggiest idea about politics, instead he punches his way about in the fog, hoping to connect with "his people" who have determined (95%) of them) they they don't want "Dear Leader", his budget, his treasurer, his chest-thumping military grief, and his belief that all life's problems can be solved with a hammer.
Well the post the date is there for all who wish to see including Robi's agreement with your post it is disgusting and this is the last I will comment on it .you can rave on with your weasel words and childish name calling all you wish I have lost interest...
The proof is in the pudding dorian and you are choking on it .
You are making a total fool of yourself Pete, twisting facts, rewriting history, it's plain for all to see. The feeling of disgust is mutual.
Excerpt from an article in the SMH 2/8/14 titled "Abbott government a little quick to seek guidance from on high" by Damien Murphy.
"A senior research fellow at the Australia Institute, David Richardson, said the appointment of the rich and powerful to advise government was a relatively recent development in national life.
Historically, Australian governments took advice from people with a track record in handling complex issues. They stick to what they know and don't go outside their areas of expertise. But the Abbott government is listening more and more to self-selected business men and women who adopt a right-wing stand for the occasion."
And from another article (SMH):
"Mr Abbott said his government had no plans to expand welfare quarantining as widely as Mr Forrest had recommended, but said he would not rule out wider quarantining in the months and years ahead."
A very disturbing habit of the Abbott government...plain undemocratic!
I would suggest many seniors on welfare payments other than aged pension do not need 100 % of their income managed, as is proposed by Forrester. He proposes all Australians on welfare payments, except those on the aged pension, should have 100 % of their payments income managed.
I manage my DSP income well and would be humiliated to have a Basics card to present for groceries and clothes. I already practice some ‘income management‘ voluntarily. Centrelink takes out my rent to pass on which anyone can apply for under Centrepay, I get fortnitely amount taken out by AGL for rent and electricity .
But I don‘t need help with anything else thanks. And no, I don‘t drink except for one glass once a month or so with family and friends. Dont smoke. Dont play the pokies. Dont gamble. Live a quiet law abiding life. Am a senior. So why should I be treated like a criminal just because I an a disability pensioner who is too ill too work and wondering how many yeas I got left? I was happy to make it to 50. Now I wonder if I‘ll be really really lucky and make it to 60. And no, don‘t have any indigenous blood in me. And I‘m the only one in my family on welfare. I have met five indigineous people this year or so. One is an alcoholic who is already income managed under NSW law, I believe probably due to mental health issues, and the other are full time social workers and one full time public servant. What I am suggesting is while income management is no doubt necessary for necessary cases it is ridiculous to apply it to many others who are responsible people who are on benefits through no fault of their own.
Also I don‘t agree with 100 % quarantining for anyone. The alcoholic lady gets a daily allowance and she was still knocking on my door asking for money. If people are desperate, and live in metropolitan areas, they rob houses, mug people, beg, turn to sexwork, aetc. In USA crime is rampant. We don‘t need it to be like that here.