Unemployed Australians are relying on “punishingly low” support payments as job opportunities continue to decline, according to a new report. Source: ABC News.
The “mismatch” when it comes to entry-level jobs has locked more people into relying on income support long-term, the report by the Australian Council of Social Service (ACOSS) said.
ACOSS’s Faces of Unemployment report also revealed a total of 557,000 people have been receiving unemployment payments for more than a year, and 190,000 for more than five years.
The report called for a “complete overhaul” of the employment services system, accusing it of “harming” Australians with “unrealistic” requirements and failing to get them into sustainable jobs.
ACOSS chief executive Cassandra Goldie said the organisation had seen “very little” done to “genuinely tackle the level of poverty” in Australia.
“We’re very worried that we’ve already had another 100,000 people lose their job since interest rates went up,” she said.
“The reports are all there, the advice is very clear and we are urging the Government to act.”
Australia has the lowest unemployment payment of all 38 OECD countries — currently just $56 a day, a figure Dr Goldie labelled “poverty level”.
Of the 557,000 who have been receiving unemployment payments for more than a year, half have a health condition, according to the report.
The majority are women, and almost a third are older than 55. The longer a person has been receiving income support, the less likely they are to transition out of it.
Only 8 per cent of people receiving support for more than five years, and 14 per cent receiving it for more than a year, leave the support program.
ACOSS made multiple key recommendations in its report, including asking for increased payments, commitments to reform and employment targets, and ending the “automated payment suspensions” in use by employment services.
FULL STORY
Australians on income support payments for longer as entry-level jobs disappear, report reveals (By Brianna Morris-Grant, ABC News)
