Media Releases
Un(der)employed
People's Movement
against Poverty
Inc.
Phone (08) 8352 4950, e-mail here
Letter to the media and Sitting Members
and MPs
Adelaide 20 May 2002
Please take a look
at the research produced by TASCOSS and the Tasmanian Organisation of
Employment Seekers in regards to Minister Brough's media release on the
cruising unemployed.
The Tasmanian research about the experience of unemployment in rural and
regional areas of Tasmania was undertaken two years ago. It is serious
and academically sound research as opposed to Minister Brough's selective
characterisation and labelling of the unemployed. The report is called
Dead Man's Shoes.
We highly recommend the report, although it is a bit older than Minister
Brough's research about the cruising dole bludgers.
The Australian community will soon have enough of the constant bashing
of the unemployed and people with disabilities. Breaching has become an
increasingly unpopular policy and the attempts to show how much damage
it does to the States and local communities are coming together. Last
year the Salvation Army found that 20% of those who had their Centrelink
payments cut, resorted to criminal activity to survive. Many people become
homeless as a result of the third breach. It cost Anglicare to rehabilitate
a person back into accommodation $10.000, while the government saves around
$1400 through breaching.
Naturally, there will be always someone who is plain lazy. On the other
hand it is only natural to enjoy time over which no one else is master
but oneself. We all enjoy this. After nearly killing oneself with desperation
and depression about not getting a job, the only way out is to enjoy life
as an unemployed person and still continue to create employment opportunties
or try to find an alternative to the many jobs offered to others. Unemployed
people would go crazy if after ten years of unemployment they still suffer
psychologically because they have not got a job! We would all end up buried.
So now unemployed people are meant to run around head hanging down with
shame, like little puppies begging for work?
We don't think so! The only ones who should be ashamed should be the researchers,
the people in the Department and the Ministers commissioning such reports
and using them to flogg the unemployed.
Anyone with a little psychological insight can see that this grouping
of people into labels about the way they react to a most unfortunate event
in their lives, cannot be used to assert how many permanent dole bludger
and how many semi dole bludgers there are. The report about the research
does not take into account how someone arrived at the cruising attitude,
how these attitudes change over time (they do) and how unemployed people
will float during their time of unemployment through all these stages.
Where are the numbers of those who committed suicide because their Job
Network Providers told them that they had no chance of getting a job at
the age of 45? I personally know two people who cimmitted suicide, I only
know two who currently enjoy being unemployed.
Please take a look
at the report and assist us in changing the public opinion about the unemployed.
The next group of people this government has begun to bash are people
with disabilities.
In Wisconsin the government argued that people with disabilities are either
able to work or they cannot look after their children. It was a disaster,
yet they could bring in such inhumane policies.
Please let us not decline to such levels. We have to stop the poor bashing
and criminalisation of poverty now.
Thanks for your consideration
Monika Baker
Un(der)employed People's Movement against Poverty Inc.
The future of Australia as a humane society lies within your grasp!
Message to Senators and MPs 15 May 2002
Border protection and increased defense spending which will undoubtedly increase the pool of people with disabilities worldwide, seemed to have priority over the lives of people with serious and enduring disabilities. If you do not step in, they will be exposed to the harsh treatment of the Job Network and Centrelink and left with no means to cover the costs of their disability, nor any job search activities.
Breaching, compliance measures and fraud detection are the big income earners in the Family and Community Budget, more and more people will have their most basic income withheld and end up on the streets. Please vote against this cut to the Disability Support Pension.
Many people with disabilities are self funded, as are many mature aged people. Prescription rises of over 30% per prescription will be unaffordable for many.
Even if the rise is restricted to 52 prescriptions only, it will hurt pensioners and people on low income without access to private health insurance.
The worst disaster is the decision to cut the Disability Support Pension.
What will happen to all those who volunteer for 20 hours or more, those who are on a Disability Support Pension? Will they be deemed able to work at award wages?
And how will all those people with intellectual disabilities fare, once they lose their place in open employment, an achievement they so proudly pursued, often with the assistance of understanding employers?
Will we still be able to wholeheartedly recommend to people with disabilities to go out and find a job?
Disability Action Inc. has long fought for an award based wage system in sheltered employment. The new standards for Business Services prescribe a move of all business services for people with disabilities towards an award based wage system.
Will all those people who are going to be assessed as working at award level be punished by losing their access to the Disability Support Pension once they have no longer a job? Many of these people are still receiving considerable support. On the New Start Allowance they may be deemed ineligible for these services, as well as having to jump through the hoops of the Job Network.
Can we still argue and support the move towards an award based wage system if we know it may disadvantage those people who work in these sheltered workshops?
And what about those with mental health problems, invisible disabilities and conditions which have not been stabilised, will they be forced to leave the Disability Support Pension as they cannot rely on a fair assessment of their conditions? By cutting out the necessity of the treating specialists and GPs to assess a person’s ability to work, the assessment of someone’s ability to work, is left to government doctors, who work to performance standards and do not want to be caught on the other side of the desk.
The following case is essentially constructed from three similar cases, however, it is only one example of what is going on already. We hope this case will illustrate the range of complications arising from the changes outlined in this year’s budget!
People with profound disabilities are struggling to make the Job Network Providers understand their special needs already. How else could it be possible that a profoundly deaf person is asked to undertake a telemarketing training course? She cannot hear on the phone! Or that a person with an amputated leg, severely vision impaired and with other disabilities is asked to apply for manufacturing jobs, bottle shop attendant and re-shelving jobs?
Karen, a young person with a profound but hardly visible disability which gives her bad and good days, works part time as an advocate for young people with a disability, she studies part time (disability services) and she participates on Board of a disability arts group. She works around 30 hours per week in good weeks, when she is ill, she cannot work at all for days. Sometimes it takes months between attacks, and sometimes it happens every few weeks.
The Disability Support Pension allowed Karen to study without much pressure, as she also received a Pensioner Education Supplement, which covered the costs of her books. Public transport was a problem at times, but she just managed to keep up with all her activities.
Recently Karen had to go back onto the pension as she had worked for a few weeks for a special project and had earned too much during that time. As she had worked 30.5 hours during those few weeks, she was deemed to be able to work more than 30 hours per week, and her part time study load was not enough to put her onto AUSTUDY.
On New Start Allowance Karen lost $52 per fortnight, plus her Pensioner Education Supplement, plus her concessions for a variety of services, such as a cheaper electricity and phone bill, access to entertainment at concession prices. Worse though, she soon received a letter asking her to sign an Activity Agreement. According to the agreement she had to look for ten jobs per fortnight, after four weeks this was eased to five employer certificates per fortnight (employers have to sign a statement saying that the jobseeker appeared to apply for a job, decently dressed and with adequate manners/behaviour) and after that she was left to find three jobs per fortnight.
Not only was this a depressing and futile exercise, as Karen was still keen to progress her studies and was just waiting for the beginning of the next semester to increase her study load, it had devastating effects on Karen. A young optimistic and enthusiastic woman turned into an anxious nervous wreck, she lost self esteem, and became very depressed.
The first breach came when she missed her quarterly appointment, because she had a ‘bad’ day and overslept her appointment. Her apology was not accepted, so she took the 18% cut of her New Start Allowance over six months. She still hoped to get off New Start Allowance as soon as she enrolled with a greater study load. Meanwhile she had to give up her volunteer activities she so loved, as she had no money left to go out of the house.
When the beginning of the semester came, Karen felt so low and sick, she felt she could not make the commitment to an increased study load and she had seen others who tried and failed. They were left with debts from HECS fees, as they tried to keep up and withdrew or simply failed after the date of withdrawal without fail.
So Karen was breached a second time, when she stated that she would be unable to participate in the three week long job search training. This training runs from 9 – 5 and requires job seekers to cold canvass potential employers, often during the whole of the last two weeks of the training. The sheer physical strength required to walk from one to the next was unmanageable for Karen.
She tried to talk to her Centrelink Officer to have her status reviewed and re-apply for the Disability Support Pension, but she was refused. She now had to live on $280 per fortnight for six months, the second breach took 24% of her unemployment benefits.
The third breach came soon after, even the threat to take her off benefits all together, as she had demonstrated to be unwilling to look for work. Karen appealed the decision from Centrelink to breach her for the third time. It tok her almost the entire eight weeks to go through the process with Centrelink. She was threatened with eviction, could not afford her medication, starved herself to keep on paying for her phone, the only connection with the outside world, and finally turned to a welfare organisation which assisted her to get through the eight weeks without income.
Why?
Please ensure my 14 year old daughter that our society is still a place worth living in. She stormed out of the room in tears when she heard on the news that people with disabilities would be cut off the pension if they were able to work more than 15 hours. She knows what it means, she has friends who have disabilities and no hope of ever finding work in the open employment market. Not because of their disability, but because of the prejudice.
Please vote against these mean spirited policies. You will conquer the hearts of all battlers! Their loyalty may be worthwhile pursuing!
In the hope of a good outcome
Yours Sincerely
Monika Baker
Secretary Unemployed People’s Movement against Poverty Inc.
What the Un- and Underemployed expect from the Budget:
The Un(der)employed People's Movement against Poverty Inc. enters its third year of existence and activity in SA and the situation has worsened, despite falling unemployment figures.
The Job Network is not doing its job of putting long term unemployed people into jobs, instead they invent new parking zones for them. Those unfortunate long term parked unemployed people will be joined from July 2003 by people with disabilities who have shown at some point that they would be capable of working. If only they had all the support they need, like personal care support, access to affordable transport, training and equipment. And … if there were jobs for them and no discrimination.
The members of Un(der)employed People's Movement against Poverty Inc. fear, that the recently foreshadowed budget cuts will spell disaster for many unemployed people.
"Watch carefully for the savings in the welfare budget, how much of the savings estimated to occur will come from breaching those on unemployment benefits and in the future single parents and people with a disability, who suddenly receive the status of unemployed. This kind of blood money should become obvious in the estimates from the year 2003 on, when the new policy will be introduced"
And Monika Baker, secretary of UPM against Poverty and convener of the National Organisation of the Unemployed (ANOU) continues with an appeal to all Australians:
"What we need are real jobs, job creation, investment and subsidies for jobs, government jobs, restricted overtime and the 35 hour week. We do not need more punitive measures, more behaviour modification training, more job readiness, because we are all waiting for a suitable job and will jump at the occasion. This is evident by the many job applications some employers receive for middle level and also junior positions. 800 young people applied for 20 Subway jobs, up to 300 people applied for one community services job only paying close to minimum wages."
The Un(der)employed
People's Movement against Poverty Inc.' s wish list for this budget includes:
¨ Introduction of restricted overtime and the 35 hour working week
¨ No more punitive
measures - instead introduce participation allowances, which can be taken
away by non-compliance, to cover costs of working clothes, transport,
phone, postage for job search and personal care items such as hair cuts
and new clothes. This allowance should come up to the current pension
level.
¨ No indirect cuts to the Disability Support Pension by lowering the
hours a person could be able to work from 30 to 15 hours per week. This
measure will just increase unemployment figures.
¨ Access to training at no costs and if payment is necessary with
the option to pay later
¨ Decent job search programs including mentoring, training and paid
work experience programs
¨ Fairer welfare to work taxation regulations and the re-introduction
of earning credits for the long term unemployed. What has happened to
this policy announced in the last budget?"
UPM against Poverty Inc. calls out to the wider community and all politicians to insist on a fair Welfare Reform Package, which truly creates jobs and opportunities and recognises, that mutual obligation has to be mutual if any change is to be achieved for Australia's young and older long term unemployed.
Welfare Reform affects us all, the consequence is a loss of rights for all, loss of privacy, loss of free choice, loss of basic working conditions, lowering of wages and consequently, loss of viable communities. Please object to these harsh absolutely Un-Australian system.
For more information contact
David Rigney, chair of Un(der)employed People's Movement against Poverty
Inc.
Phone (08) 8352 4950
Or Monika Baker, secretary
of Un(der)employed People's Movement against Poverty Inc.
Convener of the Australian National Organisation of the Unemployed ANOU
Phone (08) 8346 8288
Or e-mail mobak@ozemail.com.au
Take a look at Un(der)employed People's Movement against Poverty Inc.'s website at http://au.oocities.com/upmapoverty/index.html
People with disabilities to get special
parking zones in Intensive
Assistance!
The current government
is about to launch the most divisive policies
in the disability sector to reduce the costs of the Disability
Support Pension. The coming budget will most certainly reveal a
tightening of the eligibility criteria for the Disability Support
Pension. The Minister for Community Services Senator Amanda Vanstone
on Background Briefing (Radio National) on Sunday, acknowledged that
there will be announcements in the coming Budget, which the
community will support because these changes are `fair and
reasonable'.
After months of speculation
it has become apparent that a person who
is in theory able to work for more than 15 hours per week will be
ineligible for the Disability Support Pension and instead receive
New Start Allowance. Combined with the new assessment and review
procedure for the Disability Support Pension which `relieves'
treating practitioners from making an assessment about the ability of
their patients to work, will lead to a new flood of breaching and
occupied parking spaces in Intensive Assistance.
While the wider community
may think it is only fair and reasonable
that those who can work should be on unemployment benefits, it is
often overlooked how difficult it is already for many people with
serious and debilitating, but often invisible, disabilities to get on
the Disability Support Pension.
People with mental
illnesses are filling the prisons and stretching
resources in the mental health sector. Many of them are capable of
working, if only they could get a job, and if only they would get the
appropriate treatments and support to maintain their health. Other
people suffer from disabilities which render them periodically unable
to work, but at other periods they would be able to work. Will all
these people end up on sickness benefits instead of the more secure
and higher Disability Support Pension?
Further people who
are vision impaired or legally blind have always
been eligible for a Disability Support Pension, and this was not
means or income tested. It could well be possible that from now on
people who are legally blind and work will not be eligible to apply
for the Disability Support Pension.
So far it seems that
the new requirements will only apply to new
applications for the Disability Support Pension while for the
existing recipients everything stays as it is. Silence is golden, if
one wants to keep privileges. This is what the current government
counts on. One group after the other loses long and hard fought for
basic support services and income security. And those who fear they
may be affected but find they are not, are silenced by fear of losing
their `privileges', if they speak out too loudly.
Spokesperson for the
Un(der)employed People's Movement against
Poverty Inc. and convener of the Australian National Organisation of
the Unemployed (ANOU), Monika Baker warns the Australian communities
of people with a disability and the unemployed: "If we start arguing
about who should have what, we all will lose our dignity. The
supports and benefits people with disabilities receive barely cover
the costs resulting from their disabilities. Regardless of whether
some have more or less access to services, benefits, pensions, let's
collectively strife for the best. Let's demand what we really need:
jobs, accommodation, support and health services, access to
education and transport to be able to afford to participate fully and
contribute with dignity to society. Most importantly we need real
jobs and security in our basic income so we can focus on getting a
job!"
Instead of spending
billions on keeping a few people out of Australia
or satisfying the US' need to fight their domestic terror war, the
Federal government should concentrate on the state of domestic
affairs, such as the rising suicide rate of the mentally ill, the
long term unemployed and the increased health problems faced by
people under pressure to do the impossible, to find a job where there
are no jobs.
No amount of learning
how to write a resumee will bring about a job
and no amount of quality op-shopping will hide some physical
disabilities. As long as there is no oversupply of jobs, no work for
people over 40, what is the point of forcing single parents, and
people with a disability on the job market? It may reduce
Commonwealth spending but increases the community's and State's
costs, we have to address the issue of people on no incomes, without
housing, and rising suicide and crime rates!
For more information
call Monika Baker: (08) 8346 8288 or after
hours (08) 8352 4950
Or e-mail monika@disabilityaction.asn.au or mobak@ozemail.com.au
Released by the Un(der)employed People's Movement against Poverty
Inc.
Letter re: Anti Terrorism Legislation
We, the Un(der)employed People's Movement against Poverty Inc. and the Australian National Organisation of the Unemployed, are very concerned about the introduction of the new Australian Security Intelligence Organisation Legislation Amendment (Terrorism) Bill 2002 about to be introduced for debate in Parliament and the Senate.
While we support the
persecution of violent terrorists who actively pursue to take the lives
of innocent civilians, we are afraid that the legislation, as suggested,
will severely curtail our civil liberties.
As an organisation we are expressing our collective opinion at times at
demonstrations, such as the May Day marches, or at specifically aimed
protests. In recent times we have participated in demonstrations at S11
and M1 in Adelaide for example, which have been depicted as violent protests
by the media.
We believe, that we as citizens who are generally disadvantaged by the
system as unemployed people, have the right to congregate and make our
voices heard. We want to do that free of threats of being accused of terrorist
activity and without fear of being arrested because we were at the wrong
place at the wrong time.
We as an organisation, are following the principles of non-violent protests
and democratic decision making. There are already many ways in which the
system forces unemployed people to remain silent. To take away the ability
to publicly call for a boycott of the system has already led a few unemployed
people to financial disaster and homelessness.
While we have no plans to commit any crimes nor are associated with groups
who could even remotely be identified as supporting terrorists, the definition
of who can be arrested under the suspicion of involvement in terrorist
activity is far too broad in the suggested legislation. The processes
required to allow the judicial system to treat people as suspected terrorists
are insufficient to warrant a fair process.
Warrants for questioning can be issues by a prescribed authority (Minister,
Federal Magistrate, and Deputy President of the AAT). Imagine the day
the Minister accuses the opposition of political terrorism because papers
have been leaked from the governments' offices. Opposition politicians
could be held for up to 48 hours, will have to disclose all they have
on them, and if suspected of possibly informing others about their arrest,
they are not allowed access to legal aid. Then the Deputy President of
the AAT reviews the decision to keep the suspects longer than 48 hours
without access to legal representation or even as much as a notice to
the family.
Apart from other legal arguments which could be mounted we trust the Law
Society and Legal Rights Centres to advise you on these matters.
In general we believe that there is no need to intorduce new terrorism
offences, the existing criminal law can be used, possibly amended, but
very carefully.
We are afraid that
the opportunity to eliminate political opponents or people who protest
against government policies by banning organisations or lists that label
individuals or organisations as terrorists, is too tempting.
Fairer and more thorough evidence and judicial processes are required
to not let this kind of legislation degrade our democratically based society.
Currently Palestinensian and Afghan organisations are protesting against
our government's border protection policies and in our opinion, rightly
so.
Will we be labelled terrorists or will our friends, the traumatised family
members in Australia of those who literally get slaughtered in front of
our TV screens and with whom we express solidarity, be labelled terrorists
because of their ethnic background or their faith?
There is no need for
new powers for ASIO. The children overboard affair has clearly shown that
the government is willingly bending and hiding the truth in order to win
an election, any more powers given to ASIO or other Government departments
without full accountability and open to full public scrutiny will severely
undermine our democracy.
We strongly urge you to vote against the Australian Security Intelligence
Organisation Legislation Amendment (Terrorism) Bill 2002. We will take
note of the result of the votes.
Please think about the future of our children and be an example of the
democratic principles. We believe it must be possible to fight true terrorism
within a democratic society and a fair judicial system.
Thanks for your considerations
Monika Baker
Secretary of the Un(der)employed People's Movement against Poverty Inc.
Convener of the Australian National Organisation of the Unemployed
Unemployed, carers and migrants left out of many concessions!
April 5, 2002
The latest bank fees
from the Commonwealth bank spell disaster for many unemployed people and
their families. Most of Centrelink's payments go through the Commonwealth
bank because they offer student loans and once upon a time they were the
first bank to receive Centrelink payments.
In the future it will cost unemployed people $60.- per year to keep their
bank accounts. And it is not only bank fees which are rising.
In SA there is no concession card for public transport for New Start or
Youth Allowance recipients, rent relief payments from the housing trust
have seized, while Centrelink payments for rent contribution have not
gone up significantly. State Swim, until recently, allowed aged pensioners
to access swimming tuition for their grandchildren, but unemployed people
had to pay full fees.
Unemployment benefits are $52.80 less per fortnight. Unemployed people
on New Start and Youth Allowance receive, together with carers and migrants,
the lowest income in this country.
Monika Baker, secretary of the Un(der)employed People's Movement against
Poverty Inc. maintains:
"Unemployed people, people with a disability, carers and migrants
are people of working age, often desperate for work, severely impoverished
through long term unemployed, yet we are somehow invisible. Local Councils,
some goverment agencies, entertainment venues, sports clubs, and recereational
facilities like swimming pools are unaffordable for people on Allowances.
On the other hand many of the problems stem from social isolation. We
have a Social Inclusion Committee now, a Minister for Social Inclusion
and even the Federal Government has repeatedly identified that long term
unemployed people do not have enough dinner guests. Yet there is no relief
in sight while concession are cut further, pensions may go down and decisions
are made without us."
For more information contact Monika Baker
day: 08 8346 8288
after hours: 08 8352 4950
or by e-mail
Content:
Media Releases
May 2002
Letter to Sitting Members, Senators and the media re: Cruising
What the Un-and Underemployed expect from the Budget
The future of Australia lies within your grasp!
People with disabilities to get special parking zones in Intensive
Assistance!Letter re: Anti Terrorism Legislation
April 2002
Unemployed, carers and migrants left out of many concessions
United We Stand,
Divided We Fall!
David Rigney, Chairperson
UPM against Poverty Inc. addressing the ROAR
Conference in Brisbane,
Oct. 2000Photo: Emanuele
