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BACK IN 1600s England, they may not have had Xbox's, Holden Barinas and Macca’s drive-throughs, but they knew what do with NEETs: put them to work.

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BACK IN 1600s England, they may not have had Xboxes, Holden Barinas and Macca's drive-throughs, but they knew what do with NEETs: put them to work.
A new report from the Organisation of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has revealed that Australia now has 580,000 young people "not in employment, education or training".

Of those, 360,000 "would like to work but can't" and 220,000 are "inactive and unwilling to work". The number of NEETs has increased by 100,000 since the GFC.

Speaking to The Daily Telegraph outside the Centrelink office in Sydney's Mt Druitt on Wednesday, 17-year-old Amy and 21-year-old Ashleigh described how they would rather spend their time "chilling at Macca's" than look for a job.

"I don't want to work my whole life and just die," Ashleigh said, adding that she would "die before I spend my time in an office".

"I want more than that," she said. "I would tell you it's hard to get a job but to be honest I don't even try. Centrelink pays my rent and that's all I need."

Old Queen Lizzie would have had a thing or two to say about that. In 1601, England made its first steps towards a modern welfare system with the passing of the Poor Relief Act, also known as the Old Poor Law. Here are the four key points:

* Those unable to work were to be cared for in an almshouse or a poorhouse.

* Those who could, the "able-bodied poor", were to be set to work in a House of Industry.

* The "idle poor" and vagrants were to be sent to a House of Correction or prison.

* Pauper children would become apprentices.

Okay, so it's an extreme example, but people reading young Amy's comments may have some sympathy for a bit of no-nonsense Elizabethan "welfare".

"They pay you nothing so why would I rock up," she said on her struggle to hold down a job.

"I call in sick when I'm over it and then they just get rid of me. Not fair really because I just want to have a good time and chill out but I don't want to be fired."

Now, obviously the Old Poor Law wouldn't make sense for Australia in 2016.

For example, the part about "setting to work all such persons married or unmarried, having no means to maintain them, or no ordinary and daily trade of life to get their living by" on a "convenient stock of flax, hemp, wool, thread, iron, and other necessary ware".

That second bit should read, on "building submarines in Adelaide".

But assuming we're not going to bring back manufacturing to Australia by reopening the workhouses, what exactly is the solution to long-term - even multi-generational - welfare dependence?

Economist Dan Mitchell, senior fellow at the Cato Institute, argues there are "very worrisome implications for overall society when people start thinking that they have a 'right' to welfare and redistribution".

"At the risk of sounding like a cranky libertarian, I fear that any nation will face a very grim future once too many people lose the ethic of self-reliance and think it's morally and ethically acceptable to be moochers," he writes.

This is hardly a new debate. The "welfare paradox" has been an issue since welfare was created. Mitchell cites Benjamin Franklin, who wrote of England's welfare system pre-1830s that while he was "for doing good to the poor ... I differ in opinion of the means".

"I think the best way of doing good to the poor, is not making them easy in poverty, but leading or driving them out of it," Franklin wrote.

"In my youth I travelled much, and I observed in different countries, that the more public provisions were made for the poor, the less they provided for themselves, and of course became poorer. And, on the contrary, the less was done for them, the more they did for themselves, and became richer."

On the other side of the fence, many argue against demonising welfare recipients.

"What the OECD report really shows is that a sluggish economy creates what economists call the 'discouraged worker' effect," said Matt Grudnoff, senior economist with the Australia Institute think tank.

"When the economy is slow and unemployment is rising, people don't feel that they're likely to get a job, and we see people drop out of the labour market. They're no longer actively seeking work, not in training - this is a phenomenon that happens all over the world and we're seeing it in Australia."

Mr Grudnoff argued the problem wasn't "supply side" lack of workers, but a "demand side" problem in that there are simply not enough jobs to go around.

"The solution is to stimulate the economy," he said, criticising the government's recently announced $6 billion in cuts to welfare payments as "government policy designed to contract the economy, not expand it".

"Essentially it's cuts to services and the income of low and middle-income households," he said. "These are households that basically spend all of their income. If you cut $6 billion from the richest Australians you wouldn't reduce demand by $6 billion, because richer Aussies save some of their income."

In other words, Mr Grudnoff argues the solution to getting more people off welfare and into work is more welfare, which flows back into the economy in the form of spending, thus creating jobs.

More than that, he says the entire economic system is essentially rigged, as it's based on always having around five per cent unemployment.

If it drops below that five per cent band, as it did before the GFC, wages rise due to worker scarcity, pushing up inflation, which causes the Reserve Bank to tighten interest rates "in order to create more unemployment".

"The RBA policy officially targets inflation, because if the RBA came out and said it was trying to raise unemployment there would be outcry," he said. "That's because there are huge social costs to unemployment."

This is why, Mr Grudnoff argues, we shouldn't be too hard on the long-term unemployed.

"If you have a system where you're always going to have about five per cent of the population unemployed, the most likely people are the children of those who were unemployed," he said.

"The disadvantage will go into those areas and demographics. As a society, you can either victimise them and tell them they're the problem, or we can help them."
frank.chung@news.com.au

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organisation of cooperation and development

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BACK IN 1600s England, they may not have had Xboxes, Holden Barinas and Macca's drive-throughs, but they knew what do with NEETs: put them to work. A new report from the Organisation of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has revealed that Australia now has 580,000 young people "not in employment, education or training".

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Student fees would increase by 1.8 per cent next year and continue rising to a total of 7.5 per cent by 2021. And from July next year students will have to start paying back their loans when they reach an income level of $42,000 per year, down from the current level of about $55,000.
The Australian Government making it more difficult for young people in higher education. And future young students.

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Updated May 02, 2017 13:56:15

Students are set to face higher university fees from January next year as part of the Federal Government's overhaul of the higher education sector.

Education Minister Simon Birmingham on Monday night unveiled changes that he described as "measured, modest and balanced" ahead of next week's budget.

As part of the shake-up, student fees would increase by 1.8 per cent next year and continue rising to a total of 7.5 per cent by 2021.

The Government argues the changes would mean a price hike of between $2,000 and $3,600 for a four-year course.

The most expensive course, a six-year medical degree, would cost $75,000.

Senator Birmingham said the new policy was "quite measured, quite modest and quite balanced" and noted the Government was still paying the majority of students' fees.

"We're trying to maintain fairness and equity across this system," he told 7.30.

"Taxpayers will still pick up 54 per cent of average fee costs per student."

The plan also includes changes to the Government's Higher Education Loan Program.

HELP debt repayment income threshold lowered

From July next year students will have to start paying back their loans when they reach an income level of $42,000 per year, down from the current level of about $55,000.

However, the repayment rate will be on a sliding scale from 1 per cent to 10 per cent depending on income.

The Government has abandoned a previously announced 20 per cent cut to university funding, but institutions will be hit with a 2.5 per cent efficiency dividend instead on Commonwealth Grant Scheme payments in 2018 and 2019.

The Government will also make elements of university funding contingent on performance in priority areas.

From January, 7.5 per cent of a university's funding from the Commonwealth Grant Scheme will be contingent on universities meeting requirements for admissions and financial transparency.

That will expand to include performance requirements for student retention and success from 2019.

Universities have been in limbo waiting for the Government to outline its plans for the sector, since it dumped the previous Abbott Government's policy of full-fee deregulation.

That proposal failed to win enough support in the Senate and 12 months ago the Minister started a fresh round of consultation canvassing a range of options for the sector.

The Government estimates the changes will save $2.8 billion over four years.

Topics: university-and-further-education, budget, government-and-politics, australia

First posted May 01, 2017 19:01:41

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Students set to face higher uni fees under Government shake-up

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Updated May 02, 2017 13:56:15 Students are set to face higher university fees from January next year as part of the Federal Government's overhaul of the higher education sector. Education Minister Simon Birmingham on Monday night unveiled changes that he described as "measured, modest and balanced" ahead of next week's budget.

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Youth unemployment rate went down from 13.30 to 13.27
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This page provides - Australia Youth Unemployment Rate - actual values, historical data, forecast, chart, statistics, economic calendar and news. Australia Youth Unemployment Rate - actual data, historical chart and calendar of releases - was last updated on April of 2017.

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Australia Youth Unemployment Rate | 1978-2017 | Data | Chart | Calendar

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Youth Unemployment Rate in Australia increased to 13.30 percent in February from 12.30 percent in January of 2017. Youth Unemployment Rate in Australia averaged 13.47 percent from 1978 until 2017, reaching an all time high of 20.22 percent in October of 1992 and a record low of 7.61 percent in August of 2008.

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Social Exclusion and the Transition from school-work

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Social Exclusion and the Transition from school-work

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"NEET" young people and transitions. This article reports the result of analyzing longitudinal data, collected for a subsample of the 1970 British Birth Cohort Study surveyed at age 21, to model the relationship of NEET status to earlier educational achievement and circumstances and to assess the added difficulties NEET poses in relation to the building of adult identity capital.

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Social Exclusion and the Transition from School to Work: The Case of Young People Not in Education, Employment, or Training (NEET) - ScienceDirect

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In the modern labor market what Côté (1996) describes as "identity capital"-comprising educational, social, and psychological resources-is at a premium in entering and maintaining employment. One consequence is the extension of education and training while young people acquire the qualifications and skills that will enhance their employability.

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A study on youth education, training, employment and unemployment in Australia.

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Too many of the next generation ready to be a burden on their families and society

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Too many of the next generation ready to be a burden on their families and society

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WELL done, Australia. You’ve raised a generation of entitled, do-nothing layabouts lacking both ambition and work ethic; youngsters destined to be a burden on their families and the wider community for years to come.

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Job snobs: Aussie dole bludgers too lazy to pick up $250 a day picking fruit

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Job snobs: Aussie dole bludgers too lazy to pick up $250 a day picking fruit

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YOUNG, jobless Aussies are lazy and unwilling to break their welfare dependence, according to leading wine producers and citrus growers who are becoming ever more reliant on backpackers to stay in operation

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YOUNG, jobless Aussies are lazy and unwilling to break their welfare dependence, according to leading wine producers and citrus growers who are becoming ever more reliant on backpackers to stay in operation.

Despite an urgent need for unskilled workers, regional Australia is struggling to attract young people from the city despite youth unemployment in Western Sydney peaking at 17 per cent, forcing growers in the nation's food bowls to look overseas.

Wine growers in the Hunter Valley who still rely heavily on fruit pickers, claim there has been no interest from unemployed youth in Sydney to earn easy cash - up to $250 a day - picking grapes, as the region prepares for today's official start of the 2015 harvest.

So it is backpackers or bust, with several operators claiming without the injection of foreign workers, many wine producers in the Hunter Valley would cease to exist.

''We would probably be stuffed without them. The problem is, our unemployed don't have to work, it's too easy for them, plus a lot of them come with baggage; real problems,'' winemaker and former chairman of the Hunter Valley Wine Industry Association's viticulture committee Ken Bray said.

''They are too reliant on welfare and don't want to go where the jobs are.''

While most of Drayton Wines grapes are picked by a mechanical harvester, manager John Drayton said the winery still uses backpackers to pick from older vines.

He, like Andrew Pengilly from Tyrrells Wines, rarely gets interest from locals or those struggling to find work two hours away in Sydney.

Wine growers in the Hunter Valley who still rely heavily on fruit pickers, claim there has been no interest from unemployed youth in Sydney

''Should unemployed youth be coming up here to pick? Well, I'm a bit old school. Yes of course. A lot of people are saying that up here,'' Mr Drayton said.

''But that is the feeling about the whole society. People are unwilling to work."

Across the state's Riverina, the food bowl of NSW, the need for unskilled workers continues undiminished, despite it qualifying for the Howard government initiative to give foreigners an extension to their working visa if they work three months in rural Australia.

While the need for workers grows, the appeal for unemployed city residents appears non-existent.

''There are definitely a lot of opportunities in rural Australia, but it seems people think the change would be too stressful.

"We don't have fast food joints open 24 hours a day, or big shopping centres,'' Griffith orange grower Vito Mancini said.

''Just come out for a month, try it out. Don't say there is no work about, because there is plenty.''

Fellow Griffith farmer David Dissegna said: ''The unemployed don't want to do this kind of work. We would be in dire straits without foreign workers.''

Fruit growers are not the only business owners lobbying the government to relax 417 visa restrictions, ahead of the tabling of the Northern Australia Development whitepaper next month.

In regional Queensland backpackers are keeping towns afloat.

''We'll give a job to anyone who'll pull on a pair of work boots and have a go,'' McKinley roadhouse owner Aidan Day, 65, said.

The number of working holiday visas has grown by a third since 2008 and visas for 18-to-30-year-olds are being fast-tracked to 48 hours.

BACKPACKERS UP FOR HARD WORK IN OZ
Ben McClellan
IN Germany Denny Spaeth sits behind a desk working in a car manufacturing plant, but in Australia he is a man of the land, driving a forklift and heaving pumpkins out of the ground.

Mr Spaeth and girlfriend Jennifer Herde, a kindergarten teacher, are among the flood of European backpackers who earn travelling money working as fruitpickers. They are
not afraid of a hard day's work.

The couple arrived in Australia in August and worked for two months in Ayr, near Townsville, picking pumpkins, watermelons and squash. Mr Spaeth was able to earn $23 an hour driving a forklift.

The couple will spend the next month pricking grapes in the Hunter Valley. Mr Spaeth said they had loved their time Down Under and working on farms was hard but satisfying work.

"It's life experience. You learn a lot about yourself and it would not be bad for young people," he said.

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YOUNG, jobless Aussies are lazy and unwilling to break their welfare dependence, ­according to leading wine producers and citrus growers who are becoming ever more reliant on backpackers to stay in operation.

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United Nations: Youth, the hardest hit by the global financial crisis

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United Nations: Youth, the hardest hit by the global financial crisis

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“During economic downturn, young people are often the ‘last in’ and the ‘first out’ – the last to be hired, and the first to be dismissed. This issue has particularly severe implications for the school to work transition, the period when young people enter the labour market to look for their first job."
The united nations compares global adult unemployment rates to global youth unemployment rates.

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In times of economic recession, the labour market contracts and the number of unemployed people rises sharply. But for young people these periods are doubly troubling, not only are they the first targets of job cuts but also their transition from school to the job market becomes almost impossible. This is one of the most significant conclusions of the latest UN World Youth Report launched on 6 February 2012, which included a wide consultation process with youth all over the world.

"During economic downturn, young people are often the 'last in' and the 'first out' - the last to be hired, and the first to be dismissed. This issue has particularly severe implications for the school to work transition, the period when young people enter the labour market to look for their first job", says the report.

In all geographic regions of the globe, youth unemployment rates are significantly higher than adult rates, though with considerable variation. In 2010, the global youth unemployment rate remained at 12.6 per cent, while the adult unemployment rate was 4.8 per cent (International Labour Organization and United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division, 2011).

According to the same report, young people's participation in the labour force has been shrinking. Between 1998 and 2008, the youth labour force participation rate fell from 54.7 to 50.8 per cent. In 2009, the world total of unemployed youth reached a historical record of 75.8 million.

The UN Secretary-General's high-level panel report on sustainable development, "Resilient People, Resilient Planet", states that young people are the most affected by the economic crisis. There are currently 81 million youth unemployed and an additional 152 million work but live in households that earn less than the equivalent of 1 euro a day.

This situation results in a lack of hope to young people and social instability. The high-level panel also stresses that this results in enormous untapped human potential and proposes that the shift to a green economy can create more jobs and that investing in education and fostering empowerment of youth will allow for their entrepreneurship to flourish.

Europe
In Europe, youth unemployment has worsened over 2011 to an unprecedented level of 5.5 million with more than 10 million people unemployed for more than a year according to the European Commission, DG for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion. In December 2011, the youth unemployment rate was 22.1 % in the EU 27 countries and 21.3 % in the euro area, up from respectively 21.0 % and 20.6 % in December 2010. (Eurostat, Unemployment Statitsics).

In Spain, Ireland and Greece, unemployment rates for youth almost doubled, reaching more than 40% in the case of Spain and reversing all of the earlier positive trends experienced over the 2000s. With the exception of Austria, Germany and Switzerland, none of the advanced economies saw a return of unemployment rates for younger people to pre-crisis levels in 2011. This will have substantial long-term consequences, lowering the career path expectations of young entrants into the labour market and diminishing the incentives for the coming generation to take up long and expensive studies. (International Labour Organisation, Global Employment Trends 2012)

In the context of the European Commission's Europe 2020 strategy, the flagship initiative 'Youth on the move' is specifically targeting youth unemployment rates via a range of policies ranging from concrete recommendations for Member States, new legislative initiatives and better information tools for young people and stronger involvement of the business sector. Find out more at: http://ec.europa.eu/youthonthemove/about/policy-actions/index_en.htm

The European Commission also adopted in December 2011 a new 'Youth Opportunities Initiative', calling on Member States to work on preventing early school leaving; helping youngsters develop skills relevant to the labour market; ensuring work experience and on-the-job training and helping young people find a first good job. Find out more at: http://ec.europa.eu/social/main.jsp?langId=en&;catId=950&newsId=1143&furtherNews=yes

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Youth: the hardest hit by the global financial crisis

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In times of economic recession, the labour market contracts and the number of unemployed people rises sharply. But for young people these periods are doubly troubling, not only are they the first targets of job cuts but also their transition from school to the job market becomes almost impossible.

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A Daily Telegraph attack on young 'bludgers' backfired as their news story was wrong.

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Which kind of leads us onto our next story, where truth, prejudice and misplaced bravado got mashed up into a nasty and dangerous cocktail.

11 days ago, on the morning that A Current Affair story went to air, the front page of Sydney's Daily Telegraph had invited us all to

MEET THE ... NEW BREED OF BLUDGER

YOUNG, ABLE AND UNWILLING TO WORK.

- Daily Telegraph, 15 September, 2016

Inside on page seven the paper had a second big picture of the two girls it had splashed on the cover, and an invitation this time to:

MEET THE NEETS

THEY'RE YOUNG SELFISH AND HAPPILY JOBLESS

- Daily Telegraph, 15 September, 2016

The NEETs in question – who surely had no idea when talking to the Tele that they were to be publicly shamed, were Amy, 17, and Ashleigh, 21, from Mt Druitt in Sydney's west. Who we were told:

So how did this pair get put in the stocks like this?

Well, bludgers are a favourite Tele target and, with welfare reform on the agenda, it was an ideal time to take aim.

So it sent reporter Jack Houghton – seen here on his Facebook page – down to Mt Druitt Centrelink to go hunting.

And he apparently struck lucky, as you can see from this video:

The Tele reported that the younger girl Amy had been kicked out of college, was unable to hold down a job, and had told the paper she also didn't want to work.

That morning the two girls made it onto on Seven's Sunrise and Nine's Today Extra

And that evening they were also on Seven's six o'clock news and Nine's A Current Affair.

But that was just the start of it, because next day the Tele came back with another damning two-page spread that bashed them again.

FARCE FOOD JOB REJECTION

THE two girls who have become the faces of the new breed of young Australian dole bludgers were both offered jobs at their favourite hangout McDonald's yesterday—but turned it down.

- Daily Telegraph, 16 September, 2016

The paper was now branding them

'ZEROES'

And 'career welfare scabs'

And soon their supposed refusal to work was firing up Sydney shock-jock Ray Hadley, who took it up with Federal Treasurer Scott Morrison in their weekly chat, telling him that the Social Services Minister needed to crack down on the pair.

RAY HADLEY: The first thing that should have happened once that story was published ... Mr Porter should have been ringing Centrelink at Mt Druitt and saying, 'Here are the two girls, they've identified themselves, get 'em off the dole. Get 'em off whatever they're, whatever they're on, stop it tomorrow' ... because I guarantee today those same two girls are still drawing money on the public purse.

SCOTT MORRISON: Well, leave it with me, I'll have a chat to Christian.

RAY HADLEY: Okay, thanks for your time.

SCOTT MORRISON: Thanks Ray

- 2GB, The Ray Hadley Morning Show, 20 September, 2016

But then, six days after the Tele's front page attack, came the revelation that the paper had got half its story wrong.

With Amy's father Steven proclaiming:

And telling readers inside the paper, in a much smaller story than the original splash:

Even more to the point, Amy's dad told the Tele that she was still in year 12, and that:

And that:

The next day, Amy's father spoke to The Guardian's Amanda Meade and made it clear he was not a happy man.

And since then we have also talked to him.

And his daughter.

And it's clear that he is telling the truth.

Amy does indeed have a job.

As you can see from her payslips at McDonald's, which show she has worked there this month and earned more than $2000 this year

Not much you may say. But she's only working part-time, because she is still at school at Mt Druitt's Loyola Senior High, who told Media Watch:

So, Amy is not a NEET at all.

She is in employment, and in education, and she's enrolled for training at TAFE next year—according to her father.

Who says she actually made this clear to the Telegraph.

And indeed the Tele's own video shows her talking about her job at McDonald's, even if she did lie about the pay rate.

AMY: Five bucks an hour I'm on at Maccas.

REPORTER: So you'd prefer to go on this than do that, I guess?

AMY: Yeah, kind of. Help pay for my house and stuff, so I got a home. You don't get much getting five bucks an hour

- Daily Telegraph, 15 September, 2016

Not surprisingly her father is furious at the Telegraph's beat up and the barrage of hatred it has unleashed.

Amy's father accepts that she's not blameless in this saga.

But he's furious that the Tele held the 17 year-old schoolgirl up for ridicule and contempt without checking that its claims were true, and then took five days to correct the record when told they were not.

Referring to her even then as 'A Centrelink layabout'.

But typically the Tele refuses to accept it has done anything wrong, with the paper's editor Chris Dore telling Mumbrella:

So no backing down and no apology, even though with Amy the Telegraph got its facts totally wrong.

YOUR COMMENTS

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Which kind of leads us onto our next story, where truth, prejudice and misplaced bravado got mashed up into a nasty and dangerous cocktail. 11 days ago, on the morning that A Current Affair story went to air, the front page of Sydney's Daily Telegraph had invited us all to MEET THE ...

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This research assessed community’s perceptions of young people, young peoples perceptions of youth, influences such as media, especially local media, and other prominent groups within the community, extent of stereotyping of young people and the impacts.

"Such negative perceptions

were creating barriers for young people in their access to

employment and opportunities for active participation as members of the community. "

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The Social Policy Research Center

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Youth and Young Adulthood: New perspectives and agendas

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Youth and Young Adulthood: New perspectives and agendas

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This book extensively discusses young people in relation to transitions, social divisions, education, employment, unemployment, dependency, family relations, culture, lifestyle, civic engagement/disengagement, identities, values, beliefs , physical/mental health and crime.
Credible

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The parameters within which young people live their lives have changed radically. Changes in education and the labour market have led to an increased complexity of the youth phase and to an overall protraction in dependency and transitions.

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Youth 'at risk': further marginalising the marginalized?

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Youth 'at risk': further marginalising the marginalized?

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This paper examines the use, interpretations and implications of the concept of ‘youth at risk’, a policy tag which has become increasingly widespread in relation to educational inequality in Australia.
Credible

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Youth 'at risk' is the currently favoured label used in Australian policy for youth whose educational outcomes are considered too low, with an emphasis on the risk of not completing senior secondary education. Although some research has identified factors contributing to this risk as stemming from complex interactions between individual and family circumstances as well as characteristics of schools and society, policy identification of youth 'at risk' has tended to simplistically focus on personal attributes of young people. Moreover, this identification has set up a false distinction between a supposed problematic minority versus a 'normal' majority. Thus, the dominant conceptualization of youth 'at risk' draws attention to what is wrong with these youth, rather than to what may be wrong with schooling. This paper examines both empirical observations and discursive conceptualizations to critique the 'youth at risk' label, and proposes use of the concept of 'marginalized students' instead, which identifies individuals not through their personal characteristics but through their relationship with schooling. This approach allows recognition that marginalization is at least in part a product of schools and society, and requires action in those arenas.

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Youth 'at risk': further marginalizing the marginalized?

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Youth 'at risk' is the currently favoured label used in Australian policy for youth whose educational outcomes are considered too low, with an emphasis on the risk of not completing senior secondary education.

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The Australian Government Youth Employment Package

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The Australian Government Youth Employment Package

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Credible

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Australian Unemployed Workers' Union Myth Busting

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Australian Unemployed Workers' Union Myth Busting

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Myth: Australia spends too much on welfare
Myth: Australia spends too much on unemployed benefits
Myth: In Australia, anyone can get a job if they try hard enough. Therefore, unemployed people are "dole bludgers."
Myth: Forcing people to work for the dole will get them jobs
Myth: An unemployment rate of 4-6% is unavoidable
Credibility dependent on where the statistics and information is sourced from.

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The Australian Unemployed Workers' Union

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Australia's inhumane welfare system is based on a number of Myths Click on the links below and help us BUST THE 10 MYTHS that prop up our unfair Welfare system. MYTH #1: "The Australian...

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ABS Participation, Job Search and Mobility, February 2016 

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ABS Participation, Job Search and Mobility, February 2016 

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6226.0 - Participation, Job Search and Mobility, Australia, February 2017

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KEY FINDINGS PARTICIPATION POTENTIAL In February 2017, the Participation, Job Search and Mobility (PJSM) survey estimated that of the civilian population aged 15 years and over, 6.6 million persons were not in the labour force, 819,400 were unemployed and 12.0 million persons were employed.

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Labour Market and Related Payments: a monthly profile

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Labour Market and Related Payments: a monthly profile

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Compareable to Febuary 2017's Labour Market and Related Payments report as this is the January 2012 report.
Earliest report.
Credible

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Labour Market and Related Payments: a monthly profile

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Labour Market and Related Payments: a monthly profile

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This publication presents statistical information on a monthly basis for the various types of labour market payments delivered by the Department of Human Services (DHS) on behalf of the Department of Social Services (DSS). This includes Newstart and Youth Allowance in regards to Full-time Students, Australian Apprentices and other. And in some detail Mature age, Partner and Widow Allowances.
Most recent report.
Credible

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The Human Rights Commission discusses the extent, causes, nature and impact of unemployment and the desire for employment by young people.
Credible

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The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare 2015 

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The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare 2015 

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This report by the AIHW gives extensive information and statistics on welfare payments, employment, education and in relation to various age groups including young people, working age and older.
Credible

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Australian Institute of Health and Welfare

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Australia's welfare 2015, Table of contents - Australian Institute of Health and Welfare

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Australia@s welfare 2015 is the AIHW@s 12th biennial report on the wellbeing of Australians. It examines a wide range of contemporary topics in a series of analytical feature articles and short...

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Youth, "the Underclass", and Social Exclusion

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Youth, "the Underclass", and Social Exclusion

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This book by Macdonald discusses transitions of young people, social exclusion, and the negative impact of exclusion on youth by the majority of middle aged/class society.
Information regarding structural changes of the labour market, participation in education and demand for youth labour can be read in this book.
Credible

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Youth Transitions to Work and Further Education in Australia

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Youth Transitions to Work and Further Education in Australia

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This article by Johanna Wyn discusses youth transitions patterns, higher education policy, the Life Patterns Projects, inequality and marginalisation of young people and reality for the post 1970 generation.
Credible

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Youth unemployment at crisis point, according to Brotherhood of St Laurence analysis

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Youth unemployment at crisis point, according to Brotherhood of St Laurence analysis

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The analysis by the Brotherhood was completed using official data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
Credible if statistics are accurate from the ABS

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Updated February 24, 2014 14:28:57

Youth unemployment has reached crisis point in Australia, the Brotherhood of St Laurence says, as it releases an analysis of the latest official figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

The organisation says the figures show an average of 12.4 per cent of young people between the ages of 15 and 24 were out of work in the year to January.

It says that figure has topped 20 per cent in some parts of the country, including Cairns in far north Queensland, west and north-west Tasmania, and northern Adelaide.

Executive director Tony Nicholson has described the result as a disaster.

"What it means for all these young people is that they're at risk of never being able to get a foothold in the world of work," he said.

"And in our modern economy that means that they're really being sentenced to a lifetime of poverty."

He has called on the Federal Government to invest in a national strategy to turn things around.

"Overwhelmingly we know that these young people need advice about their career paths, they need opportunities to gain basic skills, they need mentoring, but over and above all that, what they need is an opportunity to gain work experience in a real work place with a real employer," he said.

Mr Nicholson told NewsRadio that youth unemployment has been escalating since the global financial crisis despite adult unemployment staying relatively stable.

"In a modern economy, employers are being driven to be internationally competitive and as a consequence they are placing a premium on education and qualification and particularly work experience," he says.

"We're getting a picture that the task of making the transition from school to work is much more difficult in this modern economy than it has been."

Worst regions for youth unemployment identified

The Brotherhood of St Laurence says Tasmania has the worst youth unemployment in the country.

It says 21 per cent of young people are out of work in west and north-west Tasmania, including Burnie and Devonport.

South-east Tasmania recorded nearly 20 per cent unemployment in the age group, while 18 per cent of young people in Launceston and north-east Tasmania were unemployed.

Youth unemployment hit nearly 15 per cent across Queensland last month.

Cairns recorded the worst result in the state with 20.5 per cent unemployment, but other areas of concern include the Moreton Bay region, Logan, Ipswich and the Wide Bay.

South Australia's worst result was is in the northern Adelaide area, including Elizabeth and Gawler, with 19.7 per cent of young people unemployed.

Pockets of unemployment in every state

The Northern Territory's worst youth unemployment is in the outback, where 18.5 per cent of young people are out of work.

In Victoria, the highest level of unemployment is in the Hume region, including Goulburn Valley, Wodonga and Wangaratta, where the rate has hit 17.5 per cent.

In Western Australia's Mandurah area, including Dawesville and Falcon, 17.3 per cent of young people are out of work, while in the Fremantle area it is around 12 per cent.

In rural WA, the rate of out-of-work youth is as high as 13 per cent.

Parramatta has the worst youth unemployment in New South Wales with 16.8 per cent of young people not working.

Eamon Waterford from the peak New South Wales youth body, Youth Action, says the lack of transport and the decline in blue collar jobs are behind the high youth unemployment rate in Parramatta.

"We have an area where it's very difficult to get to the jobs ... lack of affordable transport, lack of affordable housing means you can't get to where the jobs are," he said.

The ACT, where 11.3 per cent of young people are unemployed, is the only state or territory without pockets of unemployment above the national average.

First posted February 24, 2014 09:18:58

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Welfare group says youth unemployment at crisis point

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Updated February 24, 2014 14:28:57 Youth unemployment has reached crisis point in Australia, the Brotherhood of St Laurence says, as it releases an analysis of the latest official figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

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Old Problem, New Label: Reconstructing the Problem of Welfare Dependency in Australian Social Policy Discourse

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Old Problem, New Label: Reconstructing the Problem of Welfare Dependency in Australian Social Policy Discourse

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As stated by the author, this paper examines the nature of labels as a political language form and shows how the welfare dependency label was used to help legitimate the Howard Government’s agenda for welfare reform.
Credible

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Just Policy: A Journal of Australian Social Policy - Old Problem, New Label: Reconstructing the Problem of Welfare Dependency in Australian Social Policy Discourse (Humanities & Social Sciences Collection) - Informit

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Informit is an online service offering a wide range of database and full content publication products that deliver the vast majority of Australasian scholarly research to the education, research and business sectors. Informit encompasses online products: Informit Indexes, Informit Plus Text and Informit Collections.

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Struggles for Subjectivity: Identity, action and youth experience

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Struggles for Subjectivity: Identity, action and youth experience

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This book is based on a 3 year field-work study in the 1990's of young people and their experiences facing social and cultural uncertainty. It discusses topics that we have been learning about in relation to transitions, economic and social changes and prevailing views of young people.
Credible
Limited access through the link however, I'm sure the full book can be found elsewhere

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This book explores the relationship between new experiences of selfhood and new patterns of social life. It does so through an encounter with young people who confront urgent social and cultural transformations, whose experience of selfhood is unclear, often shaped by social forces that while powerful, appear difficult, if not impossible to name. These young people live in a world where institutions are weakening and identities fragmenting, where socialization into roles is being replaced by new imperatives of communication and self-esteem. Their world is shaped by new forms of freedom, but also by new forms of social polarization and conflict. More than other social groups, young people confront the imperative of locating a sense of self and subjectivity, and this book is an account of this struggle in a context of profound social and cultural change. The author draws on the experience of a diverse group of young people-graffiti artists, sufferers of anorexia, the unemployed-all from a broad range of educational and cultural backgrounds. This book renews hands-on fieldwork in the Chicago School tradition; it is one where we meet real people confronting real social situations, while its research agenda is posited within the new French "sociology of experience". Struggles for Subjectivity is not only about young people-it explores forms of crisis and struggle increasingly evident in advanced societies.

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This book explores the relationship between new experiences of selfhood and new patterns of social life. It does so through an encounter with young people who confront urgent social and cultural transformations, whose experience of selfhood is unclear, often shaped by social forces that while powerful, appear difficult, if not impossible to name.

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As stated, "Australia has 800,000 people on Newstart payments (i.e. the dole), but for the vast majority it is not a long-term proposition." Many adults and young people find employment within an estimated 10 weeks. The total lifetime cost of welfare payments have nothing to do with young and adult 'dole bludgers'. Seen in 'figure 25: Composition of lifetime cost ($Billions) by payment category" of the article, the highest category is (F) aged pension at a staggering 2,451 compared to a minuscule 40 for (A) studying and 335 for (B) working age.

Not credible however interesting to note.

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It sent out new Social Services Minister Christian Porter to imply he is set to make grand changes. Mr Porter wants you to believe he will root out all Australia's bludgers and promptly send them off, to dig holes or stack shelves with groceries, etc.

Many people believe that will reshape Australia.

But the dole bludger is a creature a bit like the Tasmanian Tiger. People claim they saw one, but their continued existence is largely a myth.

The government claims to be going on a Tasmanian Tiger hunt, and when it comes back, having shot all its bullets, we should ask who it was really shooting at.

The reality is that getting a job is very hard right now. Abundant jobs just aren't out there, especially for younger and older Australians.

Australia has 800,000 people on Newstart payments (i.e. the dole), but for the vast majority it is not a long-term proposition.

Half of all unemployed people find a job within 10 weeks. More Australians receive Disability Support Pension, and far more get the aged pension. (Some people claim the Disability Support Pension is the new home of the bludger, but getting the payment and staying on it is actually perfectly consistent with actually being incapacitated).

The government claims the total lifetime cost of our welfare system is $4.7 trillion. But anyway, the majority of those trillions has nothing to do with dole bludgers, or what Joe Hockey calls "leaners", or people on disability support.

The majority of it is people who worked their whole life, paid a great deal of tax, and now get the aged pension. The red bar in the graph below is the aged pension.

The green bar in the graph marked "B - IS Working Age" shows Income Support, which includes Newstart (the dole) alongside sickness allowance and various supports for people studying and working. It is not even in the top three.
ONCE IN A LIFETIME
The government's big new trick is to add up the lifetime cost of welfare payments. It seems to be operating on the basis that if you get people off welfare now, you can keep them off welfare in the future too.

They seem to imply past welfare is the cause of future welfare. Is this the case?

If you look at the data, some of the people who were on welfare in the past do tend to be on welfare in the future. This chart shows what happens to 15-year-old females receiving parent payments. Very few of them move into group 10 - Previous Welfare recipient.

The PwC report the government is relying on says this:

"Particular groups of interest are young parents and young carers - although these do not represent large numbers of the population, they are at particular risk of remaining reliant on welfare."

This case is a fine example of why you need to be careful interpreting data. What we have here is a confounding factor. What drives future welfare is not the payments. It is most likely the presence of a child to raise, not to mention the interruption to schooling that is likely to happen when you give birth age 15.

Take away that woman's welfare and what do you get? I strongly doubt it is going to be a happy woman and a well-fed baby that goes on to thrive. America has tried this system and there poverty is entrenched.

Half of all Aussies have received a welfare payment at some point and some of them have got more than one. The other, luckier half might feel they are entitled to expect more. But I disagree.

As it happens, I'm in that lucky half. But while I have never got cash, the government has given me a huge amount of other things - many years of education, lots of free doctors visits and one lifesaving hospital trip, free use of lots of roads, etc, etc.

If I got on my high horse and said, well, the government never gave me anything I'd be a massive hypocrite.

Nobody likes the idea of people taking their taxes to bludge on the dole, so the government emphasises that. But so few people are really dole bludgers that that is not the point. What is most likely to happen is crimping payments that keep very vulnerable people out of the deepest poverty.

The government has said it is going to use pilot programs to try out changes it makes on a small scale first. We can only hope it honestly pays attention to the real effects of the changes.
Jason Murphy is an economist. He publishes the blog Thomas The Thinkengine. Follow Jason on Twitter @Jasemurphy

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The truth about dole bludgers in Australia

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It sent out new Social Services Minister Christian Porter to imply he is set to make grand changes. Mr Porter wants you to believe he will root out all Australia's bludgers and promptly send them off, to dig holes or stack shelves with groceries, etc. Many people believe that will reshape Australia.

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Financial help if you are looking for work or participating in approved activities that may increase your chances of finding a job.
Credible

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Newstart Allowance - Australian Government Department of Human Services

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Financial help if you are looking for work or participating in approved activities that may increase your chances of finding a job.

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A payment if you’re aged 16 to 24 years, a full time student or apprentice, looking for work or sick.
Credible

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Young people to fill out numerous job applications while waiting for newstart

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Young people to fill out numerous job applications while waiting for newstart

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Under changes announced in the budget, job seekers under 30 face a six-month waiting period before being eligible for the welfare payments.
The Government has now confirmed they will also have to attend appointments with their employment services provider, and look for and accept work offers.
Non credible

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Posted June 13, 2014 07:25:58

Social Services Minister Kevin Andrews has confirmed young people will have to complete numerous job applications while they wait for the Newstart allowance.

Under changes announced in the budget, job seekers under 30 face a six-month waiting period before being eligible for the welfare payments.

They will also have to undertake 25 hours a week in the Work for the Dole program.

The Government has now confirmed they will also have to attend appointments with their employment services provider, and look for and accept work offers.

A spokeswoman for Mr Andrews says these expectations are reasonable, and similar to what is currently in place for job seekers on the Newstart allowance or the Youth allowance.

Yesterday Mr Andrews said he wants to streamline welfare payments, describing the structure of the current system as being as complicated as a "bird's nest".

In the next couple of weeks he is set to release the first report from a review into the welfare system, conducted by former Mission Australia head Patrick McClure.

Both men spoke at the Australian Council of Social Service (ACOSS) national conference, where Mr McClure revealed some of the review's proposals.

"What we will be proposing in the interim report is a simpler architecture with fewer payments and supplements," he said.

"Across this system there would be an employment focus that encourages people to work who have got the capacity to work."

Topics: welfare, community-and-society, federal-government, unemployment, disabilities, budget, australia

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Young people required to apply for jobs before Newstart payments

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Posted June 13, 2014 07:25:58 Social Services Minister Kevin Andrews has confirmed young people will have to complete numerous job applications while they wait for the Newstart allowance. Under changes announced in the budget, job seekers under 30 face a six-month waiting period before being eligible for the welfare payments.

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Suspending welfare wont help youths get jobs

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Suspending welfare wont help youths get jobs

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Youth unemployment is disproportionately experienced by young people who come from disadvantaged family or community backgrounds.
Training schemes associated with receipt of welfare benefits, and “work for the dole” schemes more generally, are not always recognised as meaningful qualifications in the labour market.
Not credible

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Getting a job as a young person can be like a game of snakes and ladders. from www.shutterstock.com

The Australian government wants to suspend welfare payments to unemployed young people who fail to turn up for mandatory training sessions.

The belief is that this will help to tackle persistently high levels of youth unemployment. The rate is around 12% nationally, and up to 28% in some communities.

The proposal includes introducing arbitrary waiting times of around a month before young people can receive unemployment benefits, and having the option to suspend payments for those who don't turn up for back-to-work training.

This policy proposal, however, is unhelpful and out of step with the evidence about the nature of contemporary youth unemployment. And if it's implemented, it's likely to aggravate the poverty that young unemployed people already experience, with no benefit to themselves or their communities.

Economic problem

Youth unemployment is not a problem within young people themselves, but is a structural feature of our economy.

High youth unemployment is a global phenomenon, and countries such as Australia have seen elevated levels of youth unemployment for decades.

Young people are particularly vulnerable to changes in the national and global economy. In Australia, high youth unemployment emerged as the economy shifted from one based on manufacturing to one based on services. This eliminated the need for large, relatively low-skilled labour forces, and with it a key source of employment for many working-class youth.

Young people most affected

Youth unemployment is disproportionately experienced by young people who come from disadvantaged family or community backgrounds.

Aggregate levels of youth unemployment hide what recent research has called " youth unemployment hotspots ", or particular communities, often in regional areas, in which youth unemployment is particularly high.

These hotspots are those in which traditional local industries have declined in economic significance - or have reorganised in such a way as to no longer require large labour forces - and in which there has not been sufficient investment in local industries to provide jobs.

This is an international phenomenon. Youth unemployment is related to inequality and poverty, as well as shifts in the social and economic fabric of our society.

Game of snakes and ladders

It is for this reason that carrot-and-stick approaches to unemployment have a poor track record internationally. Such policies often result in what UK research describes as a game of snakes and ladders in which young people cycle in and out of short-term training schemes, casual employment and periods of unemployment.

Since, as recognised by the OECD, youth unemployment is a problem of demand (ie, a lack of jobs), these initiatives merely punish those young people who are most vulnerable to poverty.

Training programs not well recongised

Training schemes associated with receipt of welfare benefits, and " work for the dole" schemes more generally, are not always recognised as meaningful qualifications in the labour market. Young people themselves often experience such schemes as demeaning "busy work".

The proposed arbitrary waiting period for unemployment benefits is particularly worrying, since it will place young people who can't get material support from their families at risk of further marginalisation and homelessness.

It is important to note that while post-compulsory educational qualifications are a critical factor in young people's labour market experiences, calls to restrict young people's access to welfare come at a time when government provision of education and training to young people is under threat.

The federal government has recently curtailed efforts to reduce the inequalities in educational funding to schools by abandoning the Gonski reforms proposed by previous governments. TAFE funding is being put in jeopardy in New South Wales - a state that is home to some of the most significant youth unemployment hotspots (such as the Hunter Valley). These changes are unlikely to assist young people to find fulfilling work.

What next?

Contemporary economies are now growing while simultaneously failing to create employment for many.

There must be a commitment to creating meaningful jobs in communities that are hard hit by youth unemployment. This will require significant government investment, as well as critical reflection on the nature and social purpose of work itself in a society where many are increasingly positioned as surplus to the requirements of our economy.

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Suspending welfare payments won't help young people get jobs

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The Australian government wants to suspend welfare payments to unemployed young people who fail to turn up for mandatory training sessions. The belief is that this will help to tackle persistently high levels of youth unemployment. The rate is around 12% nationally, and up to 28% in some communities.

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Waiting time for welfare payments for young people increased 

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Waiting time for welfare payments for young people increased 

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A six month waiting time of 6 months for Newstart, Youth allowance and special benefit for people under 30
The waiting period would only be applied to those who are most work ready
Non credible

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As a part of last year's Budget, the Government introduced a measure that would have imposed a six-month waiting period on a majority of new claimants of Newstart Allowance (NSA), Youth Allowance (Other)(YA(o)) and Special Benefit for those aged under 30 years.[1] After six months in receipt of payment, these young people would have been excluded from income support for a further six months, with this cycle continuing until they gained employment, undertook full-time study or turned 30 years of age. Following strong community resistance to the proposed measure and its failure to pass the Senate, the Government has made some changes in this Budget.

Under the revised measure, a waiting period of four weeks would be applied to new claimants of NSA, YA(o) and Special Benefit for those aged under 25 years.[2] As was the case under the previous measure, there would be some exemptions. The waiting period would be applied only to those new claimants judged to be the most work ready-that is, those job seekers who are classified as Stream A under the new jobactive employment services arrangements.[3] Young people with dependent children and those assessed as requiring greater assistance to obtain employment or as having vocational issues and/or other forms of disadvantage would be exempt. It appears that the ongoing exclusion period component of the previous measure has been dropped.

From 1 July 2016, young people subject to the waiting period would be obliged to participate in a new RapidConnect Plus rapid activation strategy.[4] This strategy would require participants to undertake a number of additional job search activities in the four weeks before they received income support.[5]

The Government expects that the changes will result in costs in excess of $1.8 billion over five years. While the previous measure was not legislated, it was nevertheless budgeted.[6] Hence, the costs are a result of the Government's not proceeding with the previous measure and having to pay out an increased amount in income support under the new measure.

Rationale for the measure

According to the Government, the new waiting period measure 'will set the clear expectation that young people must make every effort to maximise their chances of successfully obtaining work'.[7] As such, the waiting period measure appears to be premised on the notion that many young people are either choosing, or likely to choose, to rely on government-provided income support, rather than attempting to find work. According to this argument, it is necessary to provide a disincentive to stop young people from becoming disengaged and reliant on government-provided support. The Government has chosen to create such a disincentive by withholding unemployment benefits and thereby forcing young people to increase their efforts to find work.

There are three main issues associated with this rationale.

First, there is no substantive evidence to suggest that young Australians lack the will to work. A number of surveys of young people show that a majority want to work or to work more hours, but face a number of barriers to their doing so.[8] These include a lack of available jobs, particularly entry-level positions and full-time work opportunities; not having the relevant experience, skills or qualifications required or the opportunity to acquire experience or training; and, employers who are unwilling to hire younger people.[9]

Second, where young people are in receipt of income support, they must comply with the general requirements under the activity test, as well as other participation requirements, if they are to remain eligible for their payment.[10] In terms of job search requirements and monitoring, Australia's eligibility criteria for unemployment benefits are some of the strictest in the OECD.[11]

Third, the low rate at which NSA and YA(o) are paid is likely to prove sufficient incentive for many young people to find and accept work. This is the intention of these payments, whose low rates and strict eligibility criteria are calculated to provide a clear financial incentive for people to work or engage in training to boost their employability.

Risks and unintended consequences

While the waiting period measure is not nearly as severe as the previous budget's measure, it nevertheless does not appear to have the support of Labor, the Greens, or a majority of the Senate crossbenchers.[12] Judging by recent media reports, much of the community services sector is opposed to the measure.[13]

The main argument that has been raised against the proposed waiting period is that, although it has been significantly reduced, four weeks without access to income support would still place many young people in severe financial hardship. National Welfare Rights Network Policy Officer, Gerard Thomas, has insisted that the measure would 'lead to greater levels of welfare dependency, not less'.[14]

As has been noted in relation to the previous iteration of the waiting period proposal, withdrawing access to income support could have the unintended consequence of detracting from some young people's ability to find and gain paid employment.[15] Some have argued that the low level at which NSA is paid (a base rate of $519.20 per fortnight for a single person with no children) already restricts recipients' capacity to find paid work.[16] If young people subject to the proposed new waiting period are unable or unwilling to call upon family support or the assistance of charities, then they could lack sufficient means to find a job. Further, if they have no savings or other means of support, these young people would be more likely to be preoccupied with the immediate needs of paying for food and rent than with finding paid employment.

Comment

The imposition of an extended up-front waiting period for income support is a novel measure in international terms. The New Zealand requirement for some claimants of working age payments to undertake pre-benefit activities within a 28-day period has been compared to a one-month waiting period.[17] However, claimants who successfully complete the requisite activities within 28 days can receive their payments earlier and all eligible recipients will receive back pay to the relevant commencement date.[18]

If there could be said to be a 'usual practice' where it comes to withholding access to income support, it is to place time limits on receiving income support benefit.[19] As such, in the absence of overseas precedents, it is unclear what the outcomes of the measure will be. While the waiting period has been significantly reduced from that of the previous measure, this has not allayed the concerns of many in the community services sector that the measure would result in a substantial number of young people experiencing financial hardship.

[1]. Australian Government, Budget measures: budget paper no. 2: 2014-15, p. 195.

[8]. P Cameron and R Denniss,Hard to get a break? Hours, leave and barriers to re-entering the Australian workforce, Institute paper, 13, The Australia Institute, 2013; Mission Australia,Youth survey 2014, Mission Australia, Sydney, 2013; N Herault, W Kostenko, G Marks and R Zakirova, ' The effects of macroeconomic conditions on the education and employment outcomes of youth', Australian Journal of Labour Economics, 15(1), 2012, pp. 17-36; S Burrows, ' Youth unemployment in the Illawarra region', Journal of Australian Political Economy, 65, 2010, pp. 89-106

[9]. Ibid.

[12]. On 14 May 2015, Senator Rachel Siewert moved 'that the Senate calls on the Government to drop its ideological attack on young job seekers by withdrawing the budget measure that forces young people under 25 to wait one month before being able to access income support'. The motion was supported by a majority of the Senate. See: Australia, Senate, , 94, 2015, pp. 2604-05. See also: J Macklin (Shadow Minister for Families and Payments),Abbott's cut to young job seekers still unfair, media release, 13 May 2015. J Ireland, ' Federal budget 2015: young unemployed will still go hungry, say agencies', The Sydney Morning Herald, (online edition), 15 May 2015.

[13]. For example: J Ireland, op. cit.

[14]. Ibid.

[16]. See J Sloan, ' Newstart needs a boost', The Drum, 31 October 2011 and J Westacott (Chief Executive, Business Council of Australia),Sharing prosperity: Brotherhood of St Laurence Sambell Oration, speech, 23 November 2011. For current Newstart rates, see: Department of Human Services,A guide to Australian Government payments 20 March-30 June 2015, p. 26.

[18]. New Zealand, Work and Income (WINZ), 'Pre benefit activities', WINZ website.

All online articles accessed May 2015.

For copyright reasons some linked items are only available to members of Parliament.

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Waiting period for young people to access income support

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As a part of last year's Budget, the Government introduced a measure that would have imposed a six-month waiting period on a majority of new claimants of Newstart Allowance (NSA), Youth Allowance (Other)(YA(o)) and Special Benefit for those aged under 30 years.[1] After six months in receipt of payment, these young people would have been excluded from income support for a further six months, with this cycle continuing until they gained employment, undertook full-time study or turned 30 years of age.

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Young people to lose access to unemployment benefits

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Young people to lose access to unemployment benefits

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Young people would not be able to get unemployment benefits until 25.
Will have to be in study to get the payments
Not credible

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YOUNG people will not be able to get unemployment benefits until they turn 25 under reforms introduced by the Turnbull Government today.

The coalition has unveiled wide-ranging welfare reforms in parliament today, including changes to the Newstart program.

It hopes to stop people aged 22 to 24 getting Newstart or the Sickness allowance, and they will instead be shifted to the Youth Allowance payment.

This will reduce the amount of money that they will be able to get, costing a single person living away from home about $90 a fortnight.

They will also be required to study in order to qualify for the payments.

"The key aim of this measure is to provide incentives for young unemployed people to obtain the relevant education and training to increase employability," according to an explanatory memorandum for the bill.

However, it says Youth Allowance does allow students to earn a higher amount of money from part-time or casual work than Newstart, before this begins impacting their payments.

Students can also have up to $10,000 in the bank before their savings affect their payments.

But young people will also be forced to wait a month, and made to complete a compulsory program before they can get any payments.

The changes would be grandfathered so that 22, 23 and 24-year-olds already receiving Newstart can continue to do so.

They are part of a number of budget-saving welfare measures unveiled by the Turnbull Government today, which it hopes to get passed through parliament.
CHILD CARE CHANGES
Parents will finally get more help with childcare fees three years after the federal government first laid out its plans - as long as a new push to convince parliament is successful.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has labelled the planned changes "a very big social reform".

More than 843,000 families have children in some form of child care.

The plan to scrap the existing complex system of payments and establish a single-fee subsidy is unchanged from what the government proposed in May 2015.

But the government has rejigged the welfare cuts it plans to use to inject an extra $3 billion into childcare subsidies, in an omnibus bill it hopes will be more palatable to crossbench senators.

If the legislation passes in the first half of the year, the new childcare subsidy will start from July 2, 2018.

It would be means-and activity-tested, giving families between 85 per cent and 20 per cent rebate on childcare fees.

One key change is scrapping the existing $7500 cap on rebates for families earning less than $185,000.

Education Minister Senator Simon Birmingham said that meant an extra 90,000 families would have their fees subsidised for the entire year instead of facing several months of "a horror for budgeting" when their costs suddenly doubled.

Another 40,000 families on high incomes will have that cap lifted to $10,000 a year.

Labor childcare spokeswoman Kate Ellis complained the government had not done anything to fix problems the sector had raised regarding the activity test and uncertainty for indigenous and rural care services.

However, key crossbench senator Nick Xenophon said the reworking of the cuts was a step in the right direction and the childcare package was improved.
CHANGES TO PARENTING PAYMENTS
To pay for the changes the government will phase out Family Tax Benefit A end-of-year supplements but increase fortnightly payments by about $20.

"I suspect even Labor might have a look at this bill because it does all of the things that Australian families are crying out to have," Social Services Minister Christian Porter told reporters.

But Labor has said it will not support cuts to family tax benefits.

"We think the government is going to hurt millions of Australian families with these cuts," Opposition families spokeswoman Jenny Macklin told reporters in Canberra.

Families on FTB A would be $200 worse off for each eligible child, and those on FTB B would be $350 a year worse off as a family.

An earlier move to scrap end-of-year payments for Family Tax Benefits A and B to pay for the child care measures was blocked in the upper house.

The government has now agreed to increase fortnightly family tax benefit payments by about $20 to compensate families for the loss of their annual supplement.
PAID PARENTAL LEAVE
The 70,000 new parents who have a child each year, may have to consider going back to work earlier with the government wanting to cut paid parental leave payments.

Currently the government provides 18 weeks' leave paid at the minimum wage ($11,826) to new parents earning less than $150,000, and this is on top of any leave provided by their employers.

Last year the Turnbull Government tried to change this so that parents could only use government payments to top-up their work leave to a maximum of 18 weeks. It has now boosted this to 20 weeks.

It means that a new mother who gets 10 weeks of leave from her employer, will only be able to get an extra 10 weeks paid by the government for a maximum of 20 weeks leave.

The changes will not start until nine months after the bill passed, so women who are already pregnant don't miss out.
CHANGES TO THE PENSION
Seniors living overseas would have their aged pensions cut off after six weeks, down from 26 weeks

New pensioners will also lose the right to get the $14-a-fortnight energy supplement.

Those who started receiving it before 20 September 2016, will still get the payments but those who got it on that date or afterwards, will only get the payment until 19 September 2017.

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Young people will be forced to study to get welfare payments

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YOUNG people will not be able to get unemployment benefits until they turn 25 under reforms introduced by the Turnbull Government today. The coalition has unveiled wide-ranging welfare reforms in parliament today, including changes to the Newstart program.