Up to 670,000 people on disability support pensions will be encouraged to sign up to the Job Network under a radical new plan to get disabled people off social services and into work.
The Government believes as many as 150,000 people on disability pensions will move off social security and into jobs if the pilot scheme is expanded, potentially saving $1billion a year in social welfare payments.
But industry sources told us the pilot was effectively a bail-out of the 12 Job Network providers who had told the Government they were facing a funding crisis.
One of the nation's largest job agencies that helps unemployed disabled people find work collapsed last month.
The provider, Options Community Enterprise, employed more than 120 people across nine sites in Australia and was forced into voluntary administration after running out of money.
Job Network providers will be offered cash to run advertising campaigns to promote the scheme and to employ staff to contact disability pension recipients.
They will also receive a "commencement fee" of between $800 and $1200, and between $1100 and $6600 each time they place a disabled person in work.
[Corporate welfare!]
This payment is considerably more than the $60 to $90 fee the agents currently receive for handling ordinary first-time job-seekers.
Department of Employment and Workplace Relations deputy secretary Bob Correll told us yesterday the scheme would save taxpayers money and offer disability pension recipients the training and intensive assistance they required to re-enter the workforce.
"We believe that one in five people who are on the disability support pension could potentially move into employment," Mr Correll said.
"The individual gains and the taxpayer gains because they don't have to pay for as many disability support pensions."
[At what cost to the social fabric, sick and disabled workers? Why is it all about taxpayers? What happens when those taxpayers become sick, disabled and can't work? Make then work? What about their entitlements, after being worked sick? They paid taxes and they have the right to social services and social security if they get sick or disabled.]
The new strategy is designed to reduce the $2.6billion a year the federal Government currently spends on disability pensions.
Under the six-month pilot program, disabled people will be contacted by phone or letter or through community service organisations, and disability pension recipients will be asked to sign up to training and job-search programs.
One-third of the people on the disability support pension have musculoskeletal or connective tissue conditions, and almost 25 per cent have psychological and psychiatric conditions.
Mr Correll revealed yesterday that the plan followed a policy direction from Treasury Secretary Ken Henry, who said Australia's main economic challenge was to increase the proportion of the population taking part in the labour market.
Twelve Job Network agencies already hired by the federal Government to assist disabled people have been given an extra $840,000 to trial the program.
[Corporate welfare!]
If the pilot proves successful, Mr Correll said the federal Government would pump more money into Job Network and ask all of Australia's 110 agencies to approach all disability support pension recipients.
He warned that employers would face skill shortages if they did not look to disabled people as potential workers.
People on the disability support pensions are not currently required to sign up with Job Network providers to receive social security payments. But the federal Government is hoping many will sign up after being convinced of the merits of work. [?]
Mr Correll warned that Australia desperately needed to stem the decline of labour market participation rates, a result of an ageing population.
He said his department was working with industry to identify the areas where disabled people could work, with retail and hospitality at the top of the list.
[To bad about all that money wasted on war? How is that more important than an ageing population that needs a social security net after working all their lives?]
Six of the 12 Job Network providers have signed up to the pilot scheme and Mr Correll said he expected the other six to come on board.
[Why not it's corporate welfare. Why pay disabled people a living wage when they can force them to work and pay corporations their sick benefits?]
Mr Correll denied it was a bail-out but did concede it might help with their financial problems.
"This could reduce the number of people on disability support pensions . . . so it could save the Government money," he said.
Ed: You want to save the government money then get out of Afghanistan and Iraq and spend those billions on social security for disabled people who can't work. Allow the ex-prisoners to work regardless of past mistakes see links.
Tough luck! Kicks the poor to death
Australia is urged to adopt a United States-style welfare system, [?] cut welfare spending [social services spending] and encourage people to help themselves in a book on poverty published today.
Economy benefiting from non-profit institutions
Non-profit institutions are contributing $30 billion a year to Australia's economy. The Australian Bureau of Statistics has found about a third of that comes from volunteers who worked free for more than 550 million hours in 1999/2000.
By Tonia Roberts 12 January 04
The Criminal Law (Rehabilitation of Offenders) Act 1986 Qld
The Criminal Law (Rehabilitation of Offenders) Act 1986 (Qld), requires that any person who has committed an offence which is less than 10 years old or which resulted in a prison sentence of more than 30 months, must disclose that offence if requested eg. for employment purposes. If a criminal record is disclosed in a job application, it is unlikely that person will be given the job.
Shoplifting and homelessness
Shoplifting increased by 7.5 per cent last year, making it the only major crime category to register a significant increase in 2002, crime statistics show. "It's a chain reaction kind of thing. No payments, more crime. More crime, more cops. More cops, more harassment. It goes back to the bloody payments, basically," he said.
Democrats approve tougher welfare penalties: But how does that pan out? There used to be an old saying in Australia" if you're hungry steal a sheep and leave the pelt on the fence. How do you plead, Peter Saunders?
Social services groups swamped
A new report has revealed higher costs and increasing demands are forcing [social services] groups to turn more people away.
Fears for poor if Social Services take a social slide?
The director of the NSW Council for Social Service, Alan Kirkland, said it was very difficult to balance the impact of problem gambling against the broader community benefits.
Social Services small change? Or wast the money on WAR!
Lone parents on [social services] average 12 years of benefits - and are often worse off if they work. But reforming the system is risky and often costly, Bettina Arndt explains.
EX-PRISONER UNEMPLOYMENT: SENTENCED FOR LIFE
Name removed by request served time in prison decades ago. Shes still being punished today. According to commonwealth and state legislation, ex-prisoners applying for jobs must declare any conviction that fits into the following categories: less than 10 years old, more than 10 years old but served more than 30 months in prison.
Unemployed farm postings would cost jobs: AWU
The Australian Workers Union has rejected a proposal to place work-for-the-dole participants on drought-affected rural properties.
Tough luck! Kicks the poor to death
Australia is urged to adopt a United States-style welfare system, [?] cut welfare spending [social services spending] and encourage people to help themselves in a book on poverty published today.
Economy benefiting from non-profit institutions
Non-profit institutions are contributing $30 billion a year to Australia's economy. The Australian Bureau of Statistics has found about a third of that comes from volunteers who worked free for more than 550 million hours in 1999/2000.
NSW prisons - primary industry bailed up!
In many quiet regional centres around NSW there is a new primary industry shaping up. It has something to do with Bail but not with bales. The minister for Agriculture Richard Amery who also has the prisons portfolio is now committed to farming prisoners.
Robin Egan
Two thirds of fines are never collected because they go beyond the means of the defendants and because in lots of cases people do not see that they are responsible. Especially where people know their in the right and no fine ought to have been a penalty.
