The Federal Government has accused welfare groups of scaring Australians into believing that new ‘welfare to work’ schemes will leave hundreds of thousands of people worse off.
The Australian Council of Social Services (ACOSS) is campaigning against the government’s reforms, claiming that 300,000 Australians will be disadvantaged if the Senate accepts the welfare allowances in the current Budget.
“This welfare legislation is grossly unfair – at least 150,000 people who apply for payments after July 2006 plus their 150,000 children will have less money to live on. If they apply after July next year, a single parent will be around $20 a week worse off. A person with a disability will have about $40 less per week,” said ACOSS President Andrew McCallum.
Minister for Workforce Participation, Peter Dutton rejects these claims, saying the ACOSS figures are “misleading and unfairly scaring vulnerable Australians”.
The government believes that for individuals who have the capacity to work and who are of working age, having a job is the best result for them and for their families,” Mr. Dutton said.
“To suggest that individuals will be punished and have their benefits cut under the new welfare-to-work arrangements that come into effect from (1st of) July 2006 is misleading.”
The major area of concern is the lowering of the Disability Support Pension (DSP), and the availability of childcare to lone parents re-entering the workforce.
Recipients of the DSP will retain their current earnings, but new applicants will be pushed onto the lower Newstart allowance.
Minister Dutton told the Australian Policy Research Conference that disabled people who cannot work will retain the DSP, but people who are capable should work.
“We have said all along, and will continue to say, that if the nature of your disability is such that you cannot support yourself through work, then the Disability Support Pension will be there for you...[But] the community, including those with disabilities themselves, has a low level of tolerance for people who exaggerate the impact of their injury or illness and try and get onto the pension as the easy option.”
A second area of disquiet for both welfare groups and the federal opposition is the availability of childcare to lone parents who are being forced back to work.
“The only incentive the Howard government gives the most disadvantaged people to get into work is to cut their support,” opposition family and community services spokesman Chris Evans said in a statement.
“New programs to help people back to work cannot cope with the number of people who need the most assistance,” Senator Evans said.
Some information in this report was provided by AAP.
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