AUWU Policy Blog: Fighting back with a seat at the table

ANU research shows proportion of Australian unemployed men aged between 25 and 54 has not changed in almost 15 years In this year’s budget the work-for-the-dole program was expanded to include jobseekers up to 50 and Restart was introduced, giving employers an inducement to hire older workers. Photograph: Julian Smith/AAP Shalailah Medhora The Gaurdian Friday 2 January 2015 14.15 AEST  Welfare-to-work programs promoted by successive governments have had no impact on unemployment as they fail
SONIA KOHLBACHER The Australian January 14, 2015 12:00AM A WEST Australian government plan to raid welfare payments and increase jail time for fine defaulters will unfairly affect people on low incomes, according to a lobby group. Corrective Services Minister Joe Francis said he would examine the option of compulsorily deducting payments for unpaid fines from welfare recipients and extending jail time to make imprisonment a less appealing option. WA Council of Social Service chief executive
The Australian December 27, 2014 12:00AM Patricia Karvelas COMPLAINTS about job providers within the government’s $5.1 billion employment services system are increasing, with data revealing an upswing in the number of complaints by a third from July to October this year. Over this period, there were 1041 complaints a month compared with 712 each month of the previous year. One in five of the unemployed people who complained raised inappropriate service and one in eight were
The Australian November 07, 2014 12:00AM Patricia Karvelas TENS of thousands of pensioners and welfare recipients are being stung by high call costs to Centrelink, prompting the National Welfare Rights Network to call for a 1800 free-call facility for more people. In a letter to Human Services Minister Marise Payne, the network notes with concern that the majority of lines used by the department’s clients are still ‘13’ listed numbers. Centrelink’s two main lines, the
the Australian December 22, 2014 12:00AM TONY Abbott has rewarded Scott Morrison with an enormous new super portfolio placing him at the centre of delivering the Abbott government’s biggest changes and constructing a budget package delivering childcare, welfare, pension and paid parental leave reforms. The man who is credited with stopping the boats and delivering a hard-line immigration policy has been given the role of social ser­vices minister in a move that has sent shock