No dole before 25: youth will have to earn or learn   

    PATRICIA KARVELAS
    The Australian
    May 03, 2014


TOUGH new “learn or earn” rules that will deprive all people younger than 25 from receiving the general unemployment payment and push them onto the lower-paying Youth Allowance are set to be unveiled in the federal budget.    

The Weekend Australian can reveal that the Abbott government’s first budget will contain a huge welfare reform package with a range of measures, including extending by three years the period before which young ­people can apply for the New­start Allowance.      

The government will pitch the change as a measure to force young people into training for “real jobs”.

Currently, young people can apply for Newstart, which pays $510 a fortnight, when they turn 22. Until then, they can receive Youth Allowance, the full rate of which is $414 a fortnight.

The changes will kick in from January 1 next year and will save millions from the budget bottom line.

The latest figures, from March, reveal that the number of Newstart recipients had grown by 7.5 per cent over the previous 12 months, from 682,120 to 733,601. The number of Youth Allowance recipients rose 6.8 per cent, from 106,244 to 113,456.

Under the “earn or learn” welfare crackdown, school-leavers could also face a six-month waiting period before they can apply for Youth Allowance.         

The changes to unemployment and Youth Allowance eligibility fit into a broader package of welfare cuts and reforms that the Abbott government is preparing as it seeks to overhaul the commonwealth budget and take control over what it has described as a “budget emergency”.

The federal budget, which Joe Hockey will deliver on May 13, will respond to the National Commission of Audit report by accepting some of its proposals but also finding other savings to meet the central target, of both the audit report and the coming budget, of producing a budget surplus by 2023-24.

Healthcare and welfare will be the federal budget’s key targets for long-term fiscal reform.

Where your money goes

The Weekend Australian has learned that controls for the Disability Support Pension will also be tightened in the budget, including rolling reviews of recipients. A senior source said the reviews could occur as frequently as every three months, to determine whether people are still eligible for the payment.

Other changes will include that, from July 1 this year, jobseekers aged 18-30 who have been unemployed for a year or more and are receiving Newstart or Youth Allowance will receive $2500 if they get a job and remain off benefits for 12 months.

A further $4000 will be paid if they are employed for two years. From July 1, jobseekers in receipt of Newstart, Youth Allowance or the Parenting Payment can also receive up to $6000 for relocating to a regional area to take up a job. Up to $3000 will be paid to eligible jobseekers who relocate from a regional area to a metropolitan area to take up a job.

Australia is facing a youth unemployment crisis amid an explosion in the number of young people actively looking for a job and living on welfare payments.

The audit commission called this week for a new rule to tackle youth unemployment by forcing young single people aged 22-30, without dependants or special exemptions, to move to areas of higher employment or lose access to benefits after 12 months on the dole.

It also called for an increase to the income-test withdrawal (taper) rate from 50 per cent to 75 per cent for recipients of Newstart and other related allowances.

The commission argued that the current income-test arrangements mean that a single person with a private income of about $25,000 a year can still access the Newstart Allowance.

“This is almost twice the maximum payment of Newstart Allowance and is relatively high for a safety net payment,” it said.

It is proposed that the income-test taper rate be aligned with that recommended for pension payments of 75 per cent, to “more appropriately target safety net payments”.

Under the new income test, a single person can still earn about $19,000 a year before losing access to Newstart.

The commission has also called for those older than 60 who are on working-age payments including Newstart, the Widow Allowance and Sickness Allowance to receive payment cuts. People older than 60 currently receive higher rates of assistance.

The changes would “make them consistent with those for other recipients”, the commission said. With the bulk of employment services provided through Job Services Australia due to expire next year, the commission recommended the government develop options to improve the structure of the job-matching system to lower average costs per jobseeker.

I think one of the main things is to stop the entitlement we are breeding..young people think its a natural, if they dont work centrelink will send them enough to get by on...it isnt right.. it should not be accepted as normal..

if you get something from the govt then you shoul.d have to give something back.. and if that means educating yourself so be it..

it is time volunteer work in a lot of instances was a paid job... for instance meals on wheels..it can be a part time job..its just a thought... but when we have generations of people getting paid NOT to work. I cannot see them volunteering in the future to work for nothing..

Well there you have have it, a liberal government.  Cut the dole for young people, and get older people to work till 70.      

Oh I see, so if labor put the pension age up to 67, and I am not saying that was right.  Its alright for liberal to put it up to 70 is it ????.       

what a stuid idea ...

not everyone is cut out for university, and there are a shortage of jobs ..... the government is basically handing these kids over to the crime gangs ...

One of the best posts I've ever read on this topic.

I don't agree with it all, but do agree in general.

Well said! 

' It's the same as sticking them in the military'

--------------

Yes and hopefully Aussies see through that now

Especially those Aussies whose children were sent off to kill and die in Afghanistan and the Mid East

Reduce the cream of society to penury, hopelessness and guilt

They've done it before

many times


And parents get a Made in China 'Aussie' bit of rag aka flag

and a portrait of their son and daughter in uniform to sit on the mantelpiece

While frauds and killers who profit from war and lust for it

describe those dead kids as 'heroes'

Small comfort to those left to grieve for life

But hey, bodies are cheap

It's the uniforms which have risen in price.  Last week it was announced that in the past decade or so the cost (to you and I) of outfitting those kids for war has risen from ten thousand dollars to over thirty thousand

But the bodies remain cheap.  Cannon fodder.  Send those unemployed kids off to abbatoirs overseas

to curry favour with USrael.  To protect Australia's backside


But there's no need for it.  Afghanistan did nothing to us.  Nor did Iraq

In any case, the pretexts for those and other wars is revealed now as fraudulent in document dumps in the US

War is profit

Life is cheap

And if those kids emerge relatively ok physically -- their families are often left with mind-scrambled wreckage to deal with.  Or the experimental vaccinations to which 'our troops' were subjected result in birth defects, mental problems, suicides

Abbott's ok.  He has three daughters and none of them look as if they're planning a career in the armed services

Howard's kids are ok.  They're working for Howard's buddies in the US in finance and law -- those nice cushy jobs that pay the most for the least work and least risk

Blair's kids are doing fine, just like Howard's

Bush's kids, Clinton's kid -- all of them.  They'll never have to apply for the dole or die in the dirt in a foreign land with which we 'make friends'  a few years later

I sincerely hope Aussies don't cave to the push to join the armed services just for the sake of a job

In fact I hope Aussies strike against the armed services and refuse to sign up, leaving Abbott scratching for human sacrifices to offer up to the warmongering USrael

Let's take it further:  I hope Aussies refuse to join the armed services and refuse to put another generation of patsies, victims and cannon fodder on the planet

That will leave all those migrants who claim they want to be Aussie citizens.  Let's see them put on a uniform for Abbott and USrael.  Let's see if migrants are prepared to send their kids off to kill and die so warmongers can profit

Somehow I suspect we'll be waiting a long time.  And that will be good, in my opinion

Won't happen, course not.  But be great, wouldn't it, if leaders were forced to lead from the front.  Get Netanyahu and Abbott, Howard and the entire US congress out there leading the charge in some tin-pot uniform against the next contrived 'enemy'

Would be an end to wars, quick smart

Don't send your kids into the armed forces.  It was never noble and it was always to please overseas warmongers -- which is why they have to talk up ANZAC parades and are going to build a new military cemetery

They try to glorify war.  Look at the computer games

The ONLY wars should be staged against the thugs sitting there with their third stolen child's heart stuffed in their rotting chests as they orchestrate the next round of killings

Demand this government and the one that will replace it get this nation back on its feet by re-establishing manufacturing in this country so our kids can find jobs and hold their heads up -- and maybe even hope for the future

Switzerland is to vote on the proposal to provide everyone 25000 to 30,000 francs per month, whether or not they're working

Australia is touted as a 'rich' nation, one of THE 'richest' nations on the planet

Why can't we provide everyone with a comparable amount per month?

If we did, what would happen?  Would retail improve?  Would there be less drain on the health/mental health systems?  Would the economy improve?

Instead, the current government seemingly wants to penalise those who're old and young and unable to earn their own living -- whilst at the same time, protecting corporations and the rich

Hockey is emerging as a bully, an old fashioned bully with a very cruel streak.  And Abbott - well, I'm beginning to wonder about not only his sanity but also his IQ