Personally I rather my taxes go to someone actually out there making some Use of themselves instead of sitting at home everyday. Whether it works or not at least people are being productive
I'd rather my tax dollars were spend on something that was effective and produced proven outcomes, rather than wasted on something that didn't work. A University of Melbourne study into the pilot phase of work for the dole
found participants in the program were no more likely to move off welfare payments in the 12 months than a comparable group of payment recipients who did not participate in the program. But the government is happy to spend $1billion on it?
Work for the dole does not increase long term availability of jobs and doesn't provide skill development. How is FishFinder going to skill up to a meaningful job by fixing steam trains?
That same study found participation in work for the dole had " quite large significant adverse effects of participation” in the program. It suggested participation had a “chilling” effect on job search activity, allowing participants to
reduce their efforts to find long-term work. The report also said participation in work for the dole was “found to have a
significant negative effect on exit from payments, and to increase time on payments”. The same applies to many international studies - The majority of those studies find zero or negative effects on labour market outcomes for participants.
Again what's the point in throwing our tax money into a system that does sweet FA in helping people get off the dole, and in fact serves to keep them on payments longer?
Rather the government should be investing time and money into creating economic growth, and changing the focus on the program to targeting the needs of the local unemployed, and at the end of it get some kind of formal qualifications.
Fishfinder - I feel very sorry for you
What he said.
I've got mates that have played the system for 30+ years... never having worked a day in their lives that Centerlink know about.. many 1000's of days of cash work. Been sent on training courses, meetings, interviews, been kicked off and back on, theres been more episodes of today affair on people scamming the system than repeats of MASH, nothing will change.
Many people see it as a right to be paid for staying home smoking winny blues, smoking dope, drinking piss, and not having enough $ to pay rent/feed their 12 kids while they are still <25yrs old. Look at all the surfers up Byron Bay, look at 99% of the population of Nimbin and Tilba and surronds to name a few
Not saying the OP is any of these, he sounds like hes doing all he can 5-6 hours a day searching would be soul destroying for many people - specially with no leads.
Bird there are always scammers in any system, but the reality is they are a very small minority. The figures for June have the longterm unemployed (out of work for more than 12months) as sitting at 1.5%, up from 0.6% in 2008. The number of people unemployed for two years or more reached 92,500 in May this year. That's the highest level in the 15 years of publishing data. Those figures aren't just because its easy to get a gubbermint handout. The economy is tanking & I'd be very surprised if there isn't a recession in the next 2-3 years. Australia has had 20 years of growth but I think the party is coming to an end.
