Life a struggle with $20 spare each week

Date
    May 14, 2014 





You can’t have much fun in life on $20 a week.

But that’s all that 25-year-old Northcote resident Meredith Jacka has left to herself after she has paid for rent in a cheap share house, food and the other bare necessities.            

A qualified youth worker, Ms Jacka is “underemployed”: in the past five years she has only managed to secure patchy casual work and for the past three months she hasn’t worked at all.

During this time, she has lived on the dole, which for her is about $280 a week including rent assistance, and recently she has been studying for a diploma in community services.      


Dinner is usually a cheap "all-you-can-eat" plate from a Hare Krishna restaurant; she spends $30 a week on groceries.

In cash-strapped fortnights, when more than one bill arrives, she sometimes resorts to welfare agencies for food vouchers and has experienced periods of homelessness.      

In Tuesday’s budget, treasurer Joe Hockey announced that young people like Ms Jacka who want to sign onto the dole will have to wait six months before they get any money, then work for the dole for another six months, before either finding a job or getting cut off the dole for a further six months.

For those who don’t find work, do training or study, this cycle could continue indefinitely.      

“Every single thing I read makes me think ‘Oh f--k’, Ms Jacka said bluntly.

As well as the implications for her welfare payment, she is worried about the $7 co-payment to see a doctor.

“I have regular prescriptions that I need filled, that would make it very difficult for me to go to the doctor's.”

Ms Jacka will have finished studying by next July when the rules kick in for current dole recipients, so unless she finds work she will be kicked off welfare payments.

But finding secure work is not as easy as it sounds.

Like many other youth workers, she is employed in a casual pool and is often unable to accept shifts offered at the last minute because she can’t afford a car.

“Taking a shift in Springvale that starts at 6.30 in morning isn’t always possible,” Jacka says.

And returning home to live with her mum — herself a recipient of the dole — isn’t a great option either. 

Not only is she concerned it could affect her mother’s pension, but there are few job opportunities in the small country town of Trentham, near Ballarat, where she lives. 

The new rules will apply from January 1 for new recipients and July 2015 for those already on Newstart or Youth Allowance.      

The government says the new system will save $1.2 billion over four years.    

Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/business/federal-budget/life-a-struggle-with-20-spare-each-week-20140514-389bu.html#ixzz31fVpgdcH

Tony the one term wonder ??????.    

why dont you lefties take up a collection...

instead of spending your time on here whingeing about others get off your bums and go out and do something..

you crack me up  bout the poor and starving.. yet do bugger all for them...when did you last put your hand in your pocket and share  your table or your roof with someone poor..


thats right never...its always someone elses job isnt it??

do you honestly think there werent any poor people in the past 6 years of the labor govt.???

do you really....  ..

what about all those single mums.. dont recall you crying over them...

when you start up that soup wagon let us know... at least then I can say well they are sincere...

instead of being born whingers.

why doesnt she live at home....UMMMM

probably because they dont want her...

why hasnt she got a job does she volunteer anywhere who knows what might turn up..... or does she sit on her bum waiting for it to land in her lap..

whilst waiting for the promisedland.. she could get a job in maccas..well it pays and she would get cheap takeaway..

you can bleed for a 25 year old single

she cant afford a car... OMG.. dont they have buses where she lives.. maybe she should move somewhere where they do..

hey we walked... when the buses/trains knocked off we walked...we walked miles... thought nothing of it..

Everybody goes through tough times.

It's character building.

the bludgers just want welfare to be a "lifestyle" where one doesn't need to want...

they are poor and can hardly put food on the table.. 

but, they have mobile phones, internet, computers, cigarettes and alcohol... courtesy of the tax payer...

True Blue... wrote on May 14^th, 2014 at 8:39pm:


If you are referring to politicians they also get free sex and alcohol on the taxpayers.

Without mobile phone, computer and internet getting a job becomes much harder.

Now let's get down to some nitty gritty here. You do need access to the internet, a phone and probably a car if you are going to have regular work.
The exception might be if you have a set job at a fixed location and can get there via public transport, bike, walking.
This woman is looking for varied shifts in multiple locations when she knows she has buckley's hope of ever being able to get to most of them.
Northcote is pretty close to the city and has good transport though, so a job at a set location could easily work for her. In fact, Northcote is an expensive suburb, so she might even have to consider re-locating to a cheaper suburb slightly further out if she can't find work. I could not afford to rent in Northcote either!!

One aspect. She is 25 years old and probably in good health. Why doesn't she start applying for anything-fast food places, whatever, just for some steady cash.
And let me just say this-if that woman cared to look on gumtree and place an ad, maybe for housecleaning, I can tell you she would be swamped in replies. She could pick and choose local ones and walk away with about $18 an hour cash in hand. It wouldn't earn her a fortune but I would guarantee she could earn a spare $200 a week at least.
Or join a cleaning agency. Some advertise pick up. It could be full time work for her.

But at the moment, her life isn't going to go anywhere, so she needs to change her sights and do other work till she has enough to buy a little second hand car, then she can put her name down for shifts she can actually accept.

cods wrote on May 14^th, 2014 at 5:50pm:


Why doesn't she live at home?

Read the article, cods, the answers are right there.