Wait for the dole for 113,000 under-30s will have ‘deeply disturbing’ effect

Extract from The Guardian

Acoss says budget measure will leave many young people suffering severe monetary and mental distress

• Oliver Milman
• theguardian.com, Sunday 10 August 2014 12.18 AEST

Acoss CEO Cassandra Goldie: ‘The human impact will be deeply disturbing, as this isn’t a small number of people’. Photograph: Alan Porritt/AAP

More than 100,000 young people will have to wait six months for unemployment benefits under the government’s proposed budget measure, with social services advocates warning they face “deeply disturbing” knock-on effects.
Briefings given to various groups by the Department of Social Services show that 113,000 people a year aged under 30 will be denied the Newstart and Youth Allowance payments for six months.
After this period young jobseekers will have to commit to 25 hours a week in a work-for-the-dole scheme. The government will also require those on unemployment benefits to apply for 40 jobs a month, double the current requirement.
The government is facing difficulty in getting Senate support for its changes to the unemployment benefits system. Labor and the Greens are opposed to the changes while Clive Palmer, whose Palmer United party holds three crucial Senate seats, has said the proposals simply punish the jobless, with the majority of unemployed people “already trying desperately to find work”.
The Australian Council of Social Service said the scope of the measure would leave many young people suffering severe monetary and mental distress.
“The human impact will be deeply disturbing, as this isn’t a small number of people,” Cassandra Goldie, chief executive of Acoss, told Guardian Australia. “When you look at other places that have experimented this, such as the UK, you see tragic examples of people in deep depression, overwhelmed by a lack of hope.
“We should be proud of the social safety net we have in Australia. We shouldn’t be a country where if you can’t get a job you face the prospect of not being able to eat, turn on the light, or losing your housing altogether.”
Goldie said the government was misguided if it thought young people were not trying hard enough to find jobs. “At the moment there are 165,000 jobs available out there and 800,000 people looking for work. The competition is very hard, especially for those who face barriers such as discrimination.
“This nasty stereotype that young people are lazy is seriously unhelpful. If we want to encourage employers to give people a chance, this is the last thing we need.”

A spokeswoman from the Department of Social Services said about 700,000 people would be affected by the changes to Newstart should the legislation clear the hurdle of gaining support in the Senate. The government expects 30% of those people to go into education and training. The measure would save the budget $1.2bn over the next four years.