About 330,000 people will be pushed into poverty when the coronavirus supplement is cut again on January 1, writes Peter Boyle.
Unemployment
Tuesday’s budget is on everybody’s mind. Most people will be looking for whatever life buoys Treasury throws, writes Suzanne James.
Treasurer Josh Frydenberg's economic restructure plans will not only fall way short of what's needed, Graham Matthews argues they are also designed to attack working people.
Young people, who have only ever had insecure casual jobs, face a very precarious future, writes James Swift.
The devastating impacts of Australia’s economic crisis are clear for all to see, but many in the welfare sector believe the worst is yet to come, reports Fred Fuentes.
Unemployment and hunger have risen sharply during the COVID-19 pandemic, with long lines at food banks and families going without enough food, writes Barry Sheppard.
Australian Council of Social Service (ACOSS) campaign coordinator Pas Forgione outlined why a campaign to “Raise the rate” of the Newstart unemployment benefit is desperately needed, at a June 15 community forum in Sydney’s west.
Life is about to get a lot tougher for 700,000 workers and their dependents when the penalty rate cuts hit on July 1. It is also the day politicians will get a 2% pay rise.
Full and part-time workers in the retail, fast food, hospitality and pharmacy industries are the first to be hit. The ACTU calculated that casuals in the pharmacy industry will face an annual cut of up to $6000 as the result of a February ruling by the misnamed Fair Work Commission.
There are about 13 million people in the Australian workforce. According to Roy Morgan Research, in October a total of 2.5 million Australians, or 19% of the workforce, were either unemployed (1,188,000) or under-employed (1,266,000). This is up 256,000 from October 2015.
Job agencies are the government-funded organisations tasked with helping unemployed people find work.
There is growing evidence suggesting this “help” consists of the following:
There are 105,000 homeless people in Australia. In NSW and Victoria there has been a 20% increase in the rate of homelessness in the past decade. This shows that homelessness is a structural issue, one that charity is not capable of fixing.
The current homelessness services are incredibly scarce and designed to fail anyone in need of accommodation.
Melbourne’s Herald Sun newspaper has once again vilified the unemployed by publishing an article linking methamphetamine use with being on welfare. Only individuals who had been arrested by police were surveyed in the study mentioned in this piece.
The October 18 front page article read: “70% of ice users arrested by police admit being on welfare, nationwide survey finds”. However, this does not mean 70% of those receiving welfare payments are ice users.
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