14th November, 2013
The number of long-term unemployed rose to an 11-year high in October.
Figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics on Thursday showed there were 145,400 people counted as unemployed for a year or more, more than double the low of 65,900 recorded in July 2008, just before the world’s financial system weet haywire.
The October level was the highest for this seasonally-adjusted measure since April 2002.
The Courier Mail
3 December, 2013
READERS have reacted angrily to Abbott Government moves to claw back almost $3 billion in family and welfare payments under laws to tighten eligibility.
Pensioners, students and families have been included in the savings measures that will start from January.
The story has attracted more than 300 comments on couriermail.com.au and hundreds more on social media, many saying the moves are misdirected.
ABC NEWS
29 Oct 2013
For tens of thousands of older Australians who are stuck in limbo on Newstart, the age pension will seem like a windfall.
There are 140,000 unemployed Australians aged between 50 and 64 receiving the Newstart allowance from Centrelink.
Many have been out of the workforce for years and face daunting odds of ever finding a full-time job again.
Wayne Dunoon, 55, never dreamed he would struggle to find work after he was stood down at Ford eight years ago.
But he has had little work in Geelong since.
The National Welfare Rights Network has today released a comprehensive analysis of the impacts of the controversial and much criticised decision by the previous Government to push over 65,000 single parents onto the lower Newstart Allowance. It should be noted that the Coalition voted in favour of the changes while in Opposition.
New data from the Senate highlights the effects on single parents affected by retrograde changes in 2006, 2011 and 2013.
ABC NEWS
5 Feb 2014, 3:42pm AEDT
Single parents who were last year moved off the sole parent payment say their children are suffering social and emotional distress as well as poor nutrition, according to a survey.
In January 2013, the then-Labor government moved almost 100,000 parents from the Parenting Payment to the general unemployment benefit Newstart.
Advocacy group The Parenthood says parents have been left struggling to raise their children as they were between $60 and $160 a week worse off.
A survey of 550 of these parents by The Parenthood found that half reported being unable to afford fresh food, while a third struggled with medical costs.
Of those who took part 88 per cent said they struggled to cover the cost of groceries each week and just over half found it difficult to meet basic travel costs for their family.
