Tired of reading daily papers that don’t make sense? Annoyed at government policies that don’t work and blame you for being unemployed?
Well, read
The Sleuth
for an alternative point of view !
The Sleuth Content:
Jnauary 2002
Salvos say breaching leads to crime
Vanstone sidelined by razor gang
Unemployment a mental health risk?
November 2001
Salvos say breaching should be stopped
October 2001
Nuclear Warheads in Afghanistan?
September 2001
Somesacked workers limited access to Job Search
Welfare Surplus used to protect the assets of the Rich
August 2001
Breaching the safety net: the harsh impact of social security penalties
Independent group to conduct review of social security penalities
July 2001
Brough confirms $70.000.- to be repaid by Leonie Green
June 2001
Decline in Jobnetwork Performance
Women in the US told to dumpster dive to save money
May 2001
Abbott rejects calls to relax rules for job seekers
Women in the US told to dumpster dive to save money
April 2001
Senate Estimates Committee makes interesting Reading
Breaching hurts the community welfare agencies claim
March 2001
Non-Announcement Embarrasses Vanstone
Is The ABS Getting to the Bottom of the True Unemployment Figures?
Privatisation And Post-Election Expenditure Cuts In Pipeline
Job
Network Didn't Help As Many As Government Claimed -
Volunteers over 50 have to make up for it!
The Job Network System is a Hoax!
Salvation Army says breaching leads to crime!
A survey released
by the Salvos calls for the Commonwealth Government to rethink its policy
on breaching because it penalises not only the most disadvantaged in our
society but also those who are socially isolated.
‘Stepping into the breach’’ is a report by The Salvation
Army about the consequences of breaching on vulnerable people. It shows
that 25% of all on unemployment benefits asking the Salvos for emergency
relief were doing so because they had been breached. As they see 1,080,000
people each year, the majority of whom are on unemployment benefits, that
would equate to more than 200,000 people they have to assist because the
Commonwealth wants to save money.
The survey shows the following impacts of breaching :
· 84% were unable to afford food or medication
· 63% could not pay for gas, electricity or water.
· 62% could not afford to pay for accommodation, 17% became homeless
· 11% resorted to crime to pay for food, medication or housing.
It also shows that breaching is affecting more than the already identified
special groups of people with literacy problems, homelessness, domestic
violence, mental illness, substance abuse issues and indigenous people.
It is also affecting increasingly families.
The Salvation Army accepts that some measures are necessary and desirable
to minimise fraud. It also supports measures to enable and encourage participation,
but believes fundamentally that participation can be achieved by motivational
approaches rather than coercion and punishment.
A new system of incentives for participation under Mutual Obligation should
be considered. Non-compliance would then entail reduction or withdrawal
of these participation incentives whilst maintaining the security of the
basic unemployment benefit.
To download a copy of the report: http://www.salvation-army.org.au/
Vanstone Sidelined from Pre-Budget Razor Gang!
Minister for Family
and Community Services, Senator Amanda Vanstone, has been left off both
the Expenditure Review and Policy Priorities Committees.
Her absence comes despite social security making up around one-third of
all Budget outlays and John Howard’s claim that welfare reform would
be a key third term priority.
Obviously not, maybe he is planning a George Bush like take-over of responsibilities?
War against Terrorism and protecting the assets of the rich has priority
over social security spending.
Haven’t we heard recently that older workers will have to work until
death? There is a lack of human resource for jobs, but more importantly:
there will be no money for pensions!
Unemployment a mental health risk?
There is no doubt
that unemployment carries great health risks. Research has repeatedly
shown that people who are unemployed live shorter lives and die usually
of stress related illnesses or cancer. The mental attitude plays a crucial
role in conquering any illness, and obviously can also lead itself to
illness.
Someone who is continuously worried whether they will get a job or not,
whether their application has gone well or not, whether they will get
their benefits for the next fortnight or will get breached, endures an
enormous amount of stress. On top of this stress add the repeated rejections
every unemployed person has to go through between three and ten times
per fortnight. It is enough to become severely depressed.
Please do not succumb! Don’t let the ill informed masses and politicians
call you a bludger, don’t let them run your life.
Choose your contribution to society and go for it. The friends you make
along the way will carry you through. Call us!
Independent Inquiry into Breaching
UPM against Poverty Inc. participated in an hearing and a round table discussion about breaching. We also made a submission, which anyone interested can obtain by contacting UPM’s Chair or Secretary. While the terms of references were limited to asking how the process can be improved rather than looking at eliminating it altogether, we believed that it is important to make our voice heard and stated at every opportunity, that the process has devastating effects on the individual, their families and friends, their communities and that it costs the States and charities more than is saved in the Commonwealth Budget. We also highlighted the possible breach of the International Conventions of Human RIghts, an issue we will continue to pursue throughout the coming year, beginning with a Human Rights Day Picnic at Elder Park in Adelaide, on Sunday, December 9, 2001 between noon and 3 pm. We were the only unemployed represented at the inquiry.
Salvos say breaching for the vulnerable should be stopped
A survey released
by the Salvos calls for the Commonwealth Government to rethink its policy
on breaching because it penalises not only the most disadvantaged in our
society but also those who are socially isolated.
‘Stepping into the breach’ is a report by The Salvation Army
about the consequences of breaching on vulnerable people. It shows that
25% of all on unemployment benefits asking the Salvos for emergency relief
were doing so because they had been breached. As we see 1,080,000 people
each year, the majority of whom are on unemployment benefits, this would
equate to more than 200,000 people.
Our survey shows the following impacts of breaching :
· 84% were unable to afford food or medication
· 63% could not pay for gas, electricity or water.
· 62% could not afford to pay for accommodation, 17% became homeless)
· 11% resorted to crime to pay for food, medication or housing.
This shows that breaching is affecting more than the already recognised
special categories of literacy, homelessness, domestic violence, mental
illness, substance abuse and indigenous people. It is also affecting those
who are vulnerable more generally to further marginalisation as a consequence
of breaching.
The Salvation Army accepts that some measures are necessary and desirable
to minimise fraud. It also supports measures to enable and encourage participation,
but believes fundamentally that participation can be achieved by motivational
approaches rather than coercion and punishment.
A new system of incentives for participation under Mutual Obligation should
be considered. Non-compliance would then entail reduction or withdrawal
of these participation incentives whilst maintaining the security of the
basic unemployment benefit.
To download a copy of the report: http://www.salvation-army.org.au/
What
is Fascism? Isn’t it the silence in the face of injustice? Is not
everyone who knows what is going on, but is silent, as guilty as the perpetrators,
the silencers?
In these times of war it seems not possible to speak one’s mind.
To appropriate Pastor Niemoeller’s quote from Germany in 1943:
First they came for Anthony Mundine, but I don’t like boxing anyway,
so I don’t care. Than they came for ALP candidate Peter Knox, well,
I don’t care, let them tear themselves apart.
But when will they come for me? Am I already surveilled as enemy of the
State because I demonstrate for Peace? When will I get arrested and interrogated,
my phone listened in and my e-mail gloated over, because I have written
these words?
And where will you be when they arrest me?
Hiding?
Click here to access our previous newsletters
UpWords
1 No. 1:
What is Breaching
UpWords
1 No. 2:
Young Poor under Attack
UpWords
1 No. 3:
Frog
Boiling;
UpWords1
No. 4::
Welfare Reform;
UpWords1
No. 5:
S11;
UpWords1
No. 6:
History of Unemployed Movements,
Homelessness
Up-Words
No. 7:
Launch of UPM/Latest Breaching Statistics
UpWords1
No 8:
Open
Letter to Minister
Amanda Vanstone
Volume 2 Year 2001:
UpWords2
No 1:
Billionaires'
Coup for Government - US' Poor under Siege!
Up-Words2
No 2:
Big
Brother is Watching You!
Work for the Dole is Not Working
Up-Words2
No 3:
Globalism,
the Excessive Wealth Disease
The Case of the Missing Letter
Up-Words2
No 4
Is Howard a Communist?
Mal
Brough, Minister for Compassionate Employment Figure Fudgeing
Up-Words2
No 5
Benefits 37% below poverty line!
May
Day Demonstrations M1
Mean
policies impoverish single parents
Up-Words2
No 6
The Permanently Alienated Underclass
speaks Up!!
The
Budget for the Unemployed
Up-Words2
No 7
Criminalisation of Poverty?
The
Job Network is not working - from rorts to incompetence
Up-Words2
No 8
Work
for the Dole can kill!
National
Coalition against Poverty Petition
Post
card campaign
Poet's Corner: Views on Unemployment
Up-Words2
No 9
UPM
joins ranks for Peace
Unemployed
treated worse than Criminals
Nuclear
Warheads in Afghanistan?
When the Americans
bombed Yugoslavia a few years back, environmentalists in Germany, Austria,
and other neighbouring countries began to discover radiation contamination
in the great rivers flowing through their countried. The Danube was highly
affected and there was great concern that the damage would last for many
years to come.
It has become oddly silent around the issue and with American bombs once
again raining onto Afghanistan, one need to ask if they are using the
same depleted plutonium enriched warheads as in the former Yugoslavian
Republic.
What dangers are ‘our boys’ exposed to, what dangers will Afghani
children and the people in the future be exposed to?
SOME SACKED WORKERS LIMITED ACCESS TO THE JOB NETWORK
Not all sacked workers are being given automatic access to the Job Network. It has emerged that many are not being automatically given job seeker ID numbers by Centrelink, instead they have to ask for them. In addition many of the sacked workers will be denied access to Intensive Assistance under the Job Network irrespective of their level of disadvantage.
Commenting on sacked workers limited access to re-employment assistance, Cheryl Kernot, Shadow Minister for Employment and Training said today:
“It appears that many sacked workers are not being told by Centrelink that they can receive a Job Seeker ID to access the Job Network. Many sacked workers were unaware they could ask for this.
“Sacked workers have been told they can access Job Matching, but the reality is however that many of those over 40 will be needing Intensive Assistance for retraining and reskilling. Sacked workers are not eligible for unemployment benefits if their spouse earns over $26,500 per annum and so workers in this situation do not receive Intensive Assistance from the Job Network.
“Those who are not properly registered with Centrelink are generally not even allowed to access the contact details for vacant jobs as they do not attract a payment to the provider.
“Labor calls upon the Government to lift their mean restrictions on who can get access to Intensive Assistance. This means making sacked workers affected by the Ansett collapse eligible for it irrespective of whether their partner is working.
“The Job Network would be in a prime position to assist these sacked workers and many already have a great deal of spare capacity. All workers used to be able to access contact details of jobs under Labor.
“It has been forecast by Dr Peter Brain as well as Alan Midwood of Midwood Tourism and Development that 73,000 jobs are likely to be lost as a result of the Ansett collapse.
ALP Media Release 21/9/2001
This is an e-mail received from John Tomlinson who can be reached by e-mail at j.tomlinson@qut.edu.au
Star Wars will save us.
The armed forces will save us.
The nuclear arsenal will save us.
Retribution will save us.
Economic rationalism will save us.
So long as we remember the simple truth
that peace, humanity and solidarity
are the enemy.
John Tomlinson 13/9/2001
Welfare Surplus Used to Protect the Assets of the Rich
One of the first actions President Bush took was to assure that the surplus of his welfare budget would be allocated to rebuild the World Trade Centre and to protect all Americans from the evil of terrorism.
The Sleuth can imagine what that means: increased personal suveillance of phone, internet use, and other private data and general a backlash towards the emerging movement against globalisation.
America’s poor are paying the price. How long before civil war will break out? America is heading into a recession, the welfare roll has been cut over recent years with many homeless families paying the price. Next year millions of Americans will be cut off completely from receiving welfare as they have reached their limit of five years.
What will happen to those without income or with only one job? Michael Moore informed us that airline pilots earn $15.000 a year. How can they feed a family? What do the other people earn with less lucrative jobs? US prisons will be stuffed!
Breaching the safety net: the harsh impact of social security penalties
This report examines the intensification of financial hardship among very disadvantaged Australians as a result of the rapidly rising number of social security penalties.
The report raises serious questions about the appropriateness and fairness of the harsh penalty system and its application by Centrelink. Key research findings include:
- The financial hardship caused by the social security penalty system has become more extensive with a rise in breaches for the 8 month period July 2000 to Feb 2001 up to 232,400 penalties. This translates to an estimated total of 349,100 penalties imposed on unemployed people for the 2000-01 year
- a 33% rise on the penalties imposed in the previous year and a 189% increase in the number of penalties over the past three years from June 1998. At the same time, the impact of the penalties on unemployed people has worsened. An increase in the requirements placed on unemployed people has caused a substantial shift in the composition of breaches towards the higher penalties of between $678 to $1431 for Activity Test breaches from the lower penalties of between $301 to $372 for Administrative breaches. In the first eight months of the 2000-01 financial year (July 2000 – Feb 2001) there was a total of 166,485 Activity Test breach penalties compared with 177,759 for the whole of the 1999 – 2000 year. This translates into an annual Activity Test breach rate of 250,100
- a 33% increase on the previous 12 months and a 310% increase over the last three years. That between February 2000 and February 2001, there has been a 66% increase in the number of breaches recommended by the Job Network.
Whilst not all of these are applied by Centrelink, there has nevertheless been a 45% increase in the number of Job Network recommended breaches that are applied by Centrelink. Report released by SACOSS , 17 August 2001, http://www.acoss.org.au
Independent group to conduct review of social security penalties
The Australian Council of Social Service has announced that a group headed by the pre-eminent Administrative Law specialist Professor Dennis Pearce will conduct an Independent Review into Breaches and Penalties in the Social Security System.
Other Review Members are Heather Ridout and Julian Disney. ACOSS President Michael Raper said: "The Review is to be officially launched today, with full responsibility and control over its budget to be handed over to Professor Pearce as Chair of the Independent Review.
The Terms of Reference for the Independent Review are, in part, to:
- - identify factors affecting, and consequences of, recent changes in the incidence of breaches and penalties relating to unemployed people receiving social security payments;
- - recommend any improvements in the effectiveness and fairness of the system which it considers desirable in relation to statutory provisions and policies and practices of government and non-government agencies."
"The Independent Review will invite submissions from all interested persons and organisations and publish its final report by the end of this year."
The best report ever into unemployment was recently published by TASCOSS and TOES, the Tasmanian Organisation of Employment Seekers with the title: ‘Dead Men’s Shoes’.
TASCOSS visited regional Tasmania and especially the disadvantaged rural areas, invited rural and regional communities to nominate five families or individuals affected by unemployment and than paid the participants for coming in for interviews.
The report therefore is written by unemployed people who also had input into the final version of the report. It is full of remarks we have heard over the years from unemployed people and makes a strong statement about the impact unemployment has in our society today.
Anyone interested can order the report from TASCOSS or by contacting Monika by e-mail and she will sent you an electronic version of the report.
You can also take a look at the report on our web site, double click here
Congratulations on taking the stand for the unemployed!
BROUGH CONFIRMS $70,000 TO BE REPAID BY LEONIE GREEN FOR PHANTOM JOBS
28/6/2001 The Minister for Employment Services, Mal Brough, has confirmed that Leonie Green and Associates has been asked to pay back the $70,000 (200 people in Victoria, times $350 payment per person) it received for placing the unemployed into ‘phantom jobs’ whereby all the unemployed person was required to do was ‘look for work’.
What the Minister did not state was what action was being taken to prevent Leonie Green and Associates and others from placing people into ‘phantom jobs’ where all the unemployed person is required to do is to fill in a couple of bogus surveys to collect their pay of 15 hours ‘work’.
This is what happened to Amanda who appeared on A Current Affair to tell her story of how she was employed to canvas for surveys for just a few hours before being sacked. Leonie Green admitted herself on A Current Affair that she had placed 2,300 people into jobs in this manner.
Dr Shergold’s (CEO of the Department for Employment, Workplace Relations and Small Business – DEWRSB) letter to Minister Brough on the interim findings of their investigation into ‘phantom jobs’ found that the Department: Has not ruled out the possibility of fraud (page 1); Needs to address appropriateness of Leonie Green’s claims (page 2); Needs to address lines of accountability in the Department (page 2); Needs to inquire further as to the extent to which placements arose from an extensive degree of Job Splitting.
The letter also states that the issue of ‘phantom jobs’: “was raised as an issue of potential concern with the Job Network Group in National Office by several local DEWRSB contract managers. This occurred as early as last February. A number of Job Network members also raised concerns.
However the Job Network Group indicated their view that the approaches taken by Leonie Green Associates were, on the face of it consistent with contractual conditions. In retrospect it is now apparent that these conclusions were reached prematurely and on the basis of insufficient evidence.” (page 2 of the Report)
Dr Shergold has backed up the allegations that Labor raised about ‘phantom jobs’ and the Department’s prior knowledge back in February of this year. He has also admitted to the Department’s failure to stop the practice when it found out about it.
From the ALP website http://www.alp.org.au media release by Cheryl Kernot
DECLINE IN GOVERNMENT’S EMPLOYMENT PERFORMANCE
The Department of Employment, Workplace Relations and Small Business admitted that the performance of the Howard Government’s Job Network has deteriorated significantly under questioning at the Senate Estimate Hearing on June 4, 2001. In the absence of an official comparison, which the Government has refused as yet to provide, the data indicate that the Job Network’s performance, in terms of the portion of people getting a full time job, was only 13% over the period of September 1999 to September 2000. This represents a one-third decline in performance.
Commenting on Senate Estimates findings, Cheryl Kernot, Shadow Minister for Employment and Training said today: “Slowly, the truth is emerging from Tony Abbott’s Job Network snow job. We have the situation where to try and play down the massive decline in the performance of the Government’s privatised employment services Tony Abbott’s own departmental officials have questioned the validity of the very figures he has used to boast about the Job Network’s performance.
“Now that the ‘frank and fearless’ testimony of the Department has uncovered Minister Abbott’s use of bogus figures, he should apologise immediately to the House for misleading it. He should also come clean about when he was informed about the fact that his assertions were ‘overstated’.
Senator Collins, Shadow Senate spokesperson for Employment said today: “This was a remarkable admission by the Department. Either the Government’s employment performance in the Job Network has fallen by around a third or Minister Abbott was using figures that were completely wrong to brag about the Job Network.”
Joint media release Cheryl Kernot, Jacinta Collins, 5/6/2001, http://www.alp.org.au
Job Network Providers Rort the System!
Serious allegations have been made concerning the filling of phantom jobs by Job Network agencies in the Senate Estimates Committee Hearing on June 4, 2001.
As I mentioned before, estimates hearings make interesting reading! These allegations were explored by Senator Jacinta Collins and Senator Kim Carr. It was revealed “that it is common practice for some Job Network agencies to set up a labour hire company as a separate entity, hire an unemployed person for a few days and thereby claim a payment from the Government.
“It has been alleged by Job Network insiders that the people employed by these phantom companies are simply asked to ‘look for work’ as their occupation, that is they don’t have to leave home.” (media release, 5/6/2001, Cheryl Kernot, http://www.alp.org.au/media) Job Network providers set up labour hire firms which hire unemployed persons for 15 hours work (the minimum period to qualify for a Job Matching payment), pays $150 and then sacks them. The provider gets up to $400 from the Government for finding an unemployed person a ‘job’, and makes a $250 profit for no effort.
Cheryl Kernot wants these claims fully investigated by an independent arbiter and has also introduced a Private Member’s Bill for an independent Job Network Monitoring Authority.
The Sleuth believes that
the privatisation of the Job Network can only lead to such rorts and that,
as taxpayers, we will continue to waste our money by allowing private individuals
to profit from the misfortune of unemployed people. The only ones to profit
ought to be the taxpayers, not foreign companies like Drake Employment Services.
The Sleuth is waiting eagerly for the outcomes of the promised investigation
by the Departmental Secretary, Dr Shergold.
5/6/2001, http://www.alp.org.au
Minister for Family and Community Services, Senator Amanda Vanstone, today expressed her surprise at the Shadow Attorney-General's press release on the freedom of communication and some of the criticisms from organisations and other politicians.
She wants to be notified of any major release of reports, news, statements of government funded peak bodies. - Are we surprised?
"Mr McClelland has got it absolutely wrong," Senator Vanstone said. "For the record, there are no proposed gag clauses, veto clauses or vetting clauses. "Yesterday, ACOSS agreed with me that this issue is just a beat up on a slow news day …” and..."This Government believes in frank, informed and open discussion. We want to encourage public debate and have no plans to silence the community sector.”
This indeed sounds like a new policy after what happened to the Australian Refugee Council, which got severely de-funded after critizising government policy! Senator Vanstone believes "that the voice of dissent is the bell of freedom"!
Go Amanda, is all we can say...!
Abbott rejects calls to relax rules for job seekers
Federal Employment Minister Tony Abbott says it is defeatist to suggest that rules for job seekers should be relaxed because there are not enough positions available.
The Australian Council of Social Service (ACOSS) claims there are seven unemployed people for every vacant job, although it rises to 16 in Queensland. ACOSS president, Michael Raper, says that these figures should convince the Government that its welfare reforms, to be spelled out in next month's Budget, should be aimed at creating work, rather than imposing tougher conditions on obtaining welfare payments.
"So welfare reform has to have at the heart of it a strategy to grow the number of jobs in Australia, not just to make unemployed people do more to get a job," he said.
But Mr Abbott says the Government will not be relaxing conditions on welfare payments. "That line of thinking is defeatism and I don't believe in saying or doing things that encourage people to give up," Mr Abbott said. "I think that for too long we have encouraged people to sit back and think that there was nothing they can do to help themselves and to help the wider community." Abbott believes ACOSS will applaud many of the Government's welfare reform measures in next month's Federal Budget.
ACOSS says the Government should spend $4 billion over two years to stimulate jobs growth. While Mr Abbott will not detail what changes the Government will make, he says its job creation and welfare spending record speaks for itself.
From the ABC’s web site News headlines, 27 April 2001, at http://www.abc.net.au
Non-Announcement Embarrasses Vanstone
Wayne Swan - Shadow Minister for Family and Community Services Media Statement - 28 February 2001
The announcement today by Ministers Vanstone and Anthony of a 'rules simplification taskforce' for Centrelink barely scratches the surface of the red-tape nightmare of social security recipients. While in itself it is an admission that the current system isn't working properly, it fails to address the core issues of Centrelink cutbacks and the Government's one-sided mutual obligation.
On Centrelink cutbacks Minister Vanstone made the extraordinary comment today that increased simplification "is not about trying to find a saving out of Centrelink, let me rule that off, underline it, put big stars around it."
She went on to say that increased efficiencies should be channelled into improving service not making cuts. Really!
Perhaps the Minister should acquaint herself with the Government's recurrent efficiency dividend on Centrelink, which year in year out cuts Centrelink's budget in anticipation of greater efficiency. This ripped out $211 million in funding in 1999-2000 - rising to $270 million in 2003-2004. In total a massive $1.35 billion will be cut over the period 97-98 to 03-04, and 5000 staff will go.
On one-sided mutual obligation it is widely acknowledged the Government has placed unreasonable demands on some of the most vulnerable people in our community. Is it reasonable that a homeless person should be breached because they didn't respond to a letter sent to an address that they don't live at? It's extraordinary events like these that have seen the Government's trigger-happy breaching policy result in over 40% of all breaches overturned because they were in error.
It's this sort of waste of resources and needless pain that the Government refuses to address. But this is all summed up by the terms of reference for the 'taskforce' - it is merely charged with simplifying the processes for people making new claims - NOT the existing 6 million customers.
Simplifying forms and processes should be occurring on an ongoing basis - it doesn't need the razzle dazzle of a full blown press conference and the announcement of a 'special taskforce'. Centrelink recipients and hard-working Centrelink staff deserve better than this.
From the web site of the ALP for more double click here
Oregon Welfare Agency tells poor women to dumpster dive to save money
Oregon's welfare agency, the Adult and Family Services Division of the Department of Human Services, is telling poor women on welfare to "Check the dump and residential/business dumpsters" to save money, according to a circular the agency is handing out in at least one welfare office.
The Oregon Center for Public Policy (OCPP) obtained a copy of the circular. The OCPP asked Department of Human Services Director Bob Mink to "immediately make a public acknowledgement that the safety net is too small and that the agency has been wrong to suggest that Social Security recipients scour dumps and dumpsters and bargain for prices to get by on the meager resources" provided by the Department.
The OCPP went on to ask Mink to issue "an apology to the women and children in the TANF program for the insulting suggestion that they engage in demeaning, unlawful, and unhealthful behavior."
From an e-mail message to the welfare-reform mailing list
And Mal again! Broughy’s Research Methods
By Monika Baker
Minister Brough has developed his own research method to gauge public support for Work for the Dole and breaching. He outlined his method in his address at the Work for the Dole Awards.
Somehow, when talking to participants about Work for the Dole, he failed to mention his responsibilities as a federal Minister (whether this was by accident or design we don’t know): “ . . .they don’t realise I’m the Minister, you see. They think I work for Centrelink, which is interesting.”
And under this false pretence, being a ’bloke with real blokes’, he discovers the truth about the unemployed: “. . . all of these fellows that were there were in fact quite capable. They were quite articulate, and most of them had training and education. So they were lacking something which was pushing them over the edge to get a job.” We believe it may be the lack of jobs perhaps?
The Minister also researched attitudes to breaching :"I said, ‘What do you think about breaching? That’s a pretty emotive topic for you because you’re going to lose money. And they said, ‘Our opinion’ - universally of the ten or twelve people that were there - was, ‘is that if you can’t turn up on time regularly two days a week and perform to a given standard, then please breach us.”
Perhaps if the people had known who he was, they might have asked him why unemployment is so high and why it is particularly high for young people under 25? We don’t know what questions they would have liked to ask the Minister, and we also don’t know what else they told the Minister, he did not want to mention in his speech. He clarified at the beginning of the speech what kind of questions could be raised: ‘nice ones, the difficult ones will be answered through the Department‘.
With obvious reluctance we have to accept the Minister’s survey results for now, but we will work hard to change public opinion about this Slave-for–the-Dole Initiative.
New Zealand dumps Workfare Scheme
On September 26 the New Zealand Government scrapped the Workfare system, which was equivalent to our Work for the Dole Scheme. “Today's changes marked the first step in a comprehensive reform of the welfare system“, Mr Maharey, the NZ Social Services Minister said.
"The Government wants to build a modern social security system which is tailored to the needs of individual beneficiaries and which offers people opportunities to increase their skills so that they can earn a decent wage in a decent job."
Over the last decade, the welfare system had taken a punitive approach, based on the philosophy that unemployed people were lazy and didn't want to work.“
So there is a change, although no hope yet for Australia: ACT MP Muriel Newman said scrapping the work for the dole scheme would result in a "blow-out" in unemployment.
How can that be? Aren't the people on Work for the Dole unemployed, why else, would they work for the Dole?
Well, they are no unemployment statistics. That is why our unemployment figures have fallen so markedly over the last few years: The Work for the Dole scheme expanded and expanded. EVeryone can get a WOrk for the Dole person nowadays. Why not create true employment instead of fudging the figures!?
M.B.
Senate Estimates Committee Hansard makes Interesting Reading
At the Senate Estimates Committee Hearing about Community Affairs on 19 February 2001 Senator Chris Evans asked a question about the actual number of breaches which get overturned. Ms. Sue Vardon, CEO of Centrelink, responded as follows (taken from the HANSARD) : “We clarified at the last estimates that we have been wrongly using the word `breach' to refer to the recommendation that comes from a Job Network member to us. It is not a breach; it is a recommendation for a breach. Those figures have been causing a lot of confusion. We have to make a judgment on those recommendations, then we apply the breach.”
To the Sleuth’s surprise Senator Chris Evans responded: “I reckon the first time it gets challenged in the High Court the whole thing will fall over, but that is another issue.” Well, what does that mean?
Who can advise us on these matters and who is willing to sacrifice themselves to set a precedent to eradicate breaching once and for all?
At another time during the hearing Ms. Sue Vardon stated, that she actually begs her staff to not breach people. We have always thought that she was a woman with a big heart.
We love you, Sue, keep up the good work!
We just hope that she is as diligent defending her staff from the great threat of outsourcing. If there is no staff left to stop the breaching, who will overturn the breaches, that come in as recommendations from the Job Network? The Centrelink main frame computer? Maybe Sue Vardon should start retraining so she can beg the computer to please, please, not breach the poor?
Welfare Agencies Claim: Breaching Hurts the Communities
Anglicare released their State of the Family Report in March 2001, which contains numerous case studies of people who were breached, and the dire consequences this had on them and their families. Anglicare’s resources are stretched as they have to pick up the pieces and the costs of the supposed savings the Federal Government achieves through its policy of breaching. “Despite falling numbers of unemployment benefit recipients, in the last two years the number of penalties imposed on the jobless more than doubled (Australian Council of Social Service, 2000:4).
At the same time, non-government organisations report that increasing numbers of their clients are seeking help after being “breached” by Centrelink (Rollason, 2000; Metherell, 2000; Horin & Grattan, 2000) UnitingCare states in its press release from September 2000: "Breaching simply worsens the situation," said Rev John Pettman, Chair of UnitingCare Australia. "And once again, it is the churches and other charitable organisations who must pick up the pieces, and provide the assistance which Centrelink denies. The evidence of ACOSS research reveals a harsh, uncompassionate government. A ‘sanctions’ approach to welfare further entrenches systemic poverty," UnitingCare Australia even calls “on government to seriously rethink its punitive approach to welfare reform. ... We fail to see how such severe punishment will make the system work better. Our experience is telling us the current approach is further alienating those who need support most,’ Rev Pettman said."
Many agencies have signed a statement which supports the ACOSS twelve points Checklist for a Fairer Welfare System. Other States are following this example and are also supporting the drastic reduction of punitive measures. As Anglicare’s report found: “The effect of regulations which are specifically designed to be punitive or to act as a deterrent to those who would ‘abuse’ the system can be even more devastating for vulnerable individuals with limited economic or social resources.
As Americans are about to receive a bit of a tax cut the Sleuth would like draw attention to some aspects of this initiative that have been overlooked. The tax cut has been promoted as returning money to all Americans. This is true but ignores one detail. The tax cuts will favour the rich with forty percent of the money going to the richest one- percent of the population.
So as the richest Americans living in the richest country in the world get the opportunity to do a bit more shopping it's worth considering how some of the money could be spent. One seventh of this massive tax cut could be used to wipe out all African debt. This would improve America's standing in the world and be a truly humanitarian gesture. It would allow African governments the opportunity to develop their countries rather than try and pay back a mountain of debt to Western banks. However this move is unlikely from a President who has only been out of the country three times in his life.
The selfishness of the tax cut is unlikely to be the only warped decision the Bush administration makes.
Why? Well, the average wealth of each person in the Bush cabinet is 10.9 million US dollars. (The Age 5.2.2001 p 9) This figure excludes Bush himself and the Vice president Dick Cheney, both of whom have a little bit more than the above figure.
Of course the Sleuth is comforted by the fact that John Howard says he looks forward to working with the Republican administration.
The Sleuth and fellow travellers are not given to self-congratulation, however events of the past week or so are worth noting. In UpWords Vol.1 No 3 Mark Leahy alerted us to the governments desire to eliminate the Social Security Appeals tribunal and replace it with an Appeals Review Tribunal.
This would have severely disadvantaged people seeking to challenge the rulings of Centre Link because it would have allowed Ministers to issue directions controlling the practices and procedures of the tribunal. That such an initiative would have compromised the tribunal's ability to decide matters in an impartial manner is obvious.
Thankfully the proposal has been knocked back by both Labor and the Democrats in the Senate. Congratulations to all who defeated this Bill and lobbied hard.
It is strange that a fair minded person as Senator Harradine should have voted for the introduction of the Bill. What would his contituency have gained? Has he ever asked his local church organisations and welfare agencies what they think about the punitive measures of Mutual Obligation and the need for a fair and independent review process?
Equally noteworthy both Andrew Bartlett of the Democrats and Kim Beazley, Leader of the Opposition, among other Senators and Politicians, thanked UPM member's Monika Baker and David Rigney for bringing this matter to their attention.
This proves that politicians read their e-mails. The response rate from the Senators was about 80% and not automated.
Is The ABS Getting to the Bottom of the True Unemployment Figures?
The Australian Bureau of Statistics currently asks part time workers whether they would like more work.
What is not currently asked of those not in the labour force; the unemployed; part time workers; or those in full time work is what is the number of hours that you wanted to work. The current headline rate of unemployment hides the true extent of underemployment (those many Australians stuck in casual and very low hours of part time work). Labor wants to know these specifics so that we can do a better job of sharing work and economic prosperity more fairly.
Tony Abbott has contracted ACNielsen, a marketing company to conduct interviews regarding the Job Network. ACNielsen Research Pty Ltd to undertake the '2001 Survey of Job Network Participants'. The survey will run from February to April and will look at how Job Network members have helped job seekers to find jobs through each of the four service types; Job Matching, New Enterprise Incentive Scheme, Job Search Training or Intensive Assistance. The survey will include questions about the types of assistance given to job seekers and the overall quality of Job Network services. Call and ask them if you can be included, it says: "Additional information on the survey can be obtained by calling the following toll-free number: 1800 807 924"
UPM against Poverty will develop its own research to find answers to these questions and we will keep you informed .
Privatisation And Post-Election Expenditure Cuts In Pipeline
Wayne Swan - Shadow Minister for Family and Community Services Media Statement - 21 February 2001
A leaked Centrelink memo has revealed the Government is attempting to place Centrelink on a footing for privatisation, and blown the lid on 'significant' post election funding cuts should the Howard Government be returned to office.
The Ministerial Submission obtained by the Opposition shows the Government is intent on pursuing privatisation of core social services and intends to offset pre-election spending with heavy cuts post election -as the Coalition did when it first won office in 1996. The memo reveals Centrelink is fighting for its survival and keen to lock in a new funding model in the May Budget before the Coalition Expenditure Review Committee (ERC) meets in February 2002.
In the memo, Centrelink says the ERC in February 2002 will be: "...in an environment where the objective will be significant funding cuts."(p2) Centrelink's frank comments seem to suggest that the funding cuts will be across whole of Government - not just in social welfare! The memo also reveals Centrelink's concern about a new 'pure fee for service' funding model being pushed by DoFA and DEWRSB.
Centrelink is resisting such a model since 'pure fee for service' funding does not recognise their core capability or community service obligations. Of most concern is that such a funding model will enable pricing comparisons with the private sector - enabling the government to privatise selected Centrelink functions as it chooses. This will be privatisation by stealth.
The Memo makes it clear that Tony Abbot is pushing hard for this funding model approach. Any move to go down this path will further compromise service and place at risk the privacy of the 6 million Australians who receive some form of social security benefits. The message from this is clear - the Howard Government cannot be trusted. Given another term it will deliver more of the same - cuts to community services and economic rationalism gone mad.
For more news from the ALP web site http://www.alp.org.au/media/0201/wsmsmemo210201.html
Job
Network Didn't Help As Many As Government Claimed -
Volunteers
over 50 have to make up for it!
Cheryl Kernot - Shadow Minister for Employment and Training Media Statement - 22 February 2001
In Senate Estimates yesterday Departmental officials revealed that figures for the flagship program of the Job Network: Intensive Assistance, were artificially inflated by a total of 52,372 unemployed people. Under questioning from Senator Jacinta Collins the Department admitted that recent answers they had provided on notice, in fact meant that the Job Network was not helping as many clients as has been previously claimed.
A recent evaluation of the Job Network provided by the Department claimed that 324,490 people were placed in Intensive Assistance in 1999-2000. It is now known that in fact only 272,118 people commenced Intensive Assistance in 1999-2000, with the remaining 52,372 simply being moved from one Job Network provider to another, but deceptively being counted as new commencements.
Commenting on this artificial inflation of the Job Network figures, Cheryl Kernot, Shadow Minister for Employment and Training said: "The Australian public has had to endure for years now the Government making outlandish claims about the success of the Job Network. What is clear as a result of today's admissions is that all of those claims, are as Labor has been saying all along, grossly exaggerated. "Australia desperately needs a functioning Job Network system to reduce unemployment and give people access to training and retraining.
Labor is committed to overhauling the Job Network and making it work for all unemployed. "Job Network is the only employment service now offered for the bulk of Australia's unemployed, we need to have honest accurate information in order to remedy its weaknesses. "
AND VOLUNTEERS HAVE TO WEAR IT! By UPM against Poverty
The Sleuth has heard from several people over 50 who have suddenly received a letter to commence Intensive Assistance. When they tried to negotiate to keep their by Centrelink agreed to volunteer work, the JNM decided that that was not an allowable job search activity, as it keeps people from looking for employment.
Many of these volunteers have developed skills and experiences and shared their expertise and professionalism acquired from previous employment with community service organisations as volunteers. These organisations are getting robbed of their assets.
Many times such volunteer work has actually led to employment and good jobs as volunteer work demonstrated the skills and abilities to organisations, and unemployed job seekers were able to get good references when they applied for jobs.
The Sleuth suspects that the Department for Employment, Workplace Relations and Small Business (DEWRSB) has to make up for the shortfall in numbers, because it means a shortfall in financial income for the Job Network Providers. 55000 Volunteers may have to give up their work - an enormous loss for the community services sector.
And it is an enormous loss for those 55 000 as well, as they have to give up work that gave them satisfaction, reason to believe in themselves and opportunities for professional development and training often provided by organisations for their volunteers. They have to give up good career opportunties in order to go and beg 3 - 10 employers per week to take them on. Most of the older unemployed are already doing it anyway.
Most of the JNM do not do anything for their clients, other than checking for senseless compliance and ripping them off by having them attend their own training courses (which they finance by ripping individual job seekers training money off and syphoning it into their own training provision).
Most people in Intensive Assistance the Sleuth has come across have spent several years uninterruptedly on Intensive Assistance without having been offered training or any suitable jobs.
These drastic steps will further damage the social fabric and is certainly not welcomed by the Australian community!
The Job Network system is hailed as one of the government’s success stories. Consistent with the government’s loathing of public enterprise and commitment to market forces, it sold the job placement services of the CES to a range of private providers.
Tony Abbot seems convinced of its success. “The job network has turned out to be 50% better than the old CES at putting unemployed people into work, and intensive assistance, is more than 20 % better at helping long term unemployed into work.” (Adelaide Review, December 2000, p. 16).
But does the confident rhetoric of Abbott match the reality? The Australian Council of Social Service doesn’t think so. Their report (ACOSS 7.8 2000) suggests otherwise. Among their conclusions were that less than 50% of long term unemployed received Intensive Assistance, and of those that did, only 37% were in employment 3 months later. This was a poorer outcome than the previous Working Nation program sharply criticized by the Coalition government.
Independent research from The University of New South Wales Social Policy Research Unit has a similar view. They acknowledge the difficulty of making accurate comparisons because “….analysis has been hampered by relatively little information being released for independent scrutiny” (UNSW, S P R U, 2000, p.13) However they conclude that while some unemployed welcome the changes in service delivery for others there is a sense that “..little has changed. Some feel even more disempowered ”
Government policies emphasize market forces, deregulation and the virtues of private enterprise. Yet the privatization of employment services has not benefited the unemployed. The current Job Network system is designed for private business to make a profit rather than to address the real needs of the unemployed: jobs and training.
The Sleuth believes the Government should invest some of it’s budget surplus into jobs for the unemployed. Indeed, such an agenda would show the government had a genuine commitment to reducing unemployment, but this change of heart seems unlikely while they remain obsessed with conservative economic policies.
January 2001
REDUCTIONS IN WORKING TIME A SUCCESS IN FRANCE
An integral dynamic of capitalism is its ceaseless desire for ever greater improvements in productivity. These improvements are essential if we are to keep our jobs and develop a healthy internationally competitive economy…
Yes, we’re all familiar with that kind of nonsense. However the French have tried a novel approach to tackling unemployment. Lionel Jospin’s Socialist government introduced a 35-hour week on January the first last year. Economists looked to the heavens and muttered how the economy would collapse and that unemployment would increase.
Well, not surprisingly those practitioners of the dismal science got it wrong. The French Economy is growing and unemployment is at a nine year low of 9.2 per cent (The Weekend Australian January 27 28, 2001 p 20). While the Sleuth recognizes that this level of unemployment is still to high perhaps it offers our policy makes some food for thought…
If everyone would stop working unpaid overtime, every unemployed person would have a job!
Dr. Clive Hamilton from the Australia Institute published a report just after Christmas in which he outlined that the amount of unpaid overtime, for the first time in recorded history, is greater than the amount of hours all unemployed people could work in Australia.
The picture is clear, there are a lot of people afraid to ask to get their overtime paid. They voluntarily let themselves be exploited and at the same time reduce their paid working hours, because “It’s either that or I’ll get the sack,” as Tony, who works for an accountant, explains.
Efficiency measures and performance agreements enable and aid this black market economy of human resources. If you are unemployed you have the chance to work your ‘voluntary’ overtime in form of volunteer contributions. Together this overtime, volunteering, and the Work-for-the-Dole hours, which are also unpaid work, amounts to a significant proportion of our GDP. If it would have to be paid, we would all be better off.
As things are we have the biggest, blackest economy ever, and that by official decree:
STOP THE BLACK ECONOMY, MAKE THE GOVERNMENT AND INDUSTRY PAY FOR WHAT THEY USE!
Wage rises boost inflation and the economy can't afford them. Sound familiar?. The Sleuth has always been suspicious of such reasoning because it's usually the poor that make the sacrifice. Recently released data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics confirm this. (Household Expenditure Survey Sept 2000)
The report examines the financial stress of those households 'whose principal source of income is employee income' The study shows that of Australia's approximately 800,000 low paid households an estimated ·
- 30,000 went without meals due to a shortage of money ·
- 220,000 felt their standard of living is worse than two years ago ·
- 166,000 could not pay utility bills due to a shortage of money ·
- 244,000 had experienced cash flow problems in the past year.
At the saw time some people have been able to increase their wealth. Executives salaries have risen by over 26 per cent and the nations million dollar executives received average pay increases of more than 60 per cent. (The Age 3/2/2001 p3)
As the election season approaches Mr Howard and his minsters will talk about how they govern the country for all Australians. Many of them will boast about their record as economic managers. Yet the above figures confirm that during a period of unprecedented economic growth those already well off have benefitted the most. So much for honest John…
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