Penalties cause hardship for unemployed

Presented by:

Michael Raper
Director, Welfare Rights Centre, Sydney

Former ACOSS President and Director of the National Welfare Rights Network Michael Raper spoke on breaching in the welfare system when he delivered the second in the Centre of Full Employment and Equity's (CofFEE) Public Policy Lecture series for 2002.

Breaching involves penalising welfare recipients who do not comply with Centrelink requirements. Unemployed people must demonstrate regular, active job search, be willing to accept any available work, and to undertake activities determined by Centrelink to improve their employment prospects. The number of breaches and penalties imposed on job-seekers has significantly increased in recent years, with twice as many penalties imposed today than in 1998.

Michael pointed to evidence of arbitrary and unfair decision-making with respect to how the breaching policy has been applied in individual cases.

"Individual penalties often exceed $1,000 and can cause severe hardship for unemployed people and their families," he said. "Such penalties exceed those imposed for certain offences treated by courts, and the appropriateness and equity of such treatment must be addressed by policymakers."

Rather than providing adequate assistance and opportunities for the unemployed to develop durable work skills, many aspects of the system, such as Work for the Dole, are simply compliance mechanisms. Central to the existing system is a focus on the individual, who is held responsible for their situation. Michael noted that the fundamental problem was a lack of jobs in the economy and that any amount of breaching will not help people to find jobs that are not there.

The policy of breaching is not universally accepted and the lecture audience of staff, students and members of the public discussed whether improvements could be made to the existing system or whether such fine-tuning could ever significantly impact on the level of unemployment.

Left to Right: CofFEE Director Bill Mitchell with Michael.

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