Work for welfare on the way
By TOM ALLARD, Economics Correspondent
Sole parents and the disabled would be required to make themselves more
employable or forfeit their full payments under a radical overhaul of
welfare being considered by Cabinet ministers this week.
In what would be the biggest shake-up of the welfare system, the
preliminary report of the Welfare Reform Reference Group also recommends
that jobless and parenting benefits, and the disability pension, be
rolled into one payment.
As unemployment benefits are $20 a week lower than sole parenting
payments and the disability support pension, this raises the question of
whether some payments will fall or rise.
But the report dodges this dilemma by not setting a rate for the new payment.
The report has already been sent to the Prime Minister and the Minister
for Family and Community Services, Senator Newman, and ministers have
received a briefing paper.
Sources said sole parents with school-age children would be expected to
undertake activities such as career counselling and other job
preparation programs or risk losing their full payments.
It is understood that this would also apply to those on disability
payments who are not severely incapacitated.
The number of people on disability payments has more than doubled in
past 10 years to nearly 600,000, raising concerns within the Government
about rorting of the payment.
It is understood that the report also recommends that money be spent on
helping sole parents and the disabled meet their new obligations,
including assistance for transport, housing and child care.
The Government is also urged to address the rapid rate at which
unemployment benefits taper off when income is earned, discouraging the
unemployed from taking up part-time work.
The report also recommends one-to-one assistance for the bulk of the
more than 1.5 million people receiving the payments.
This could lead to the tendering of these services along the lines of
the Job Network, stripping Centrelink of its responsibilities in this
area - or its privatisation - thus dramatically expanding the Prime
Minister's notion of a "social coalition".
Such a coalition sees the Government working with the non-profit and
private sectors to deliver government services, while requiring those
receiving benefits to "give something back". The idea will be at the
centre of discussion at the Liberal Party conference next month.
The preliminary report of the Welfare Reform Reference Group has had a
difficult birth.
Last year, Senator Newman was scheduled to make a landmark address on
welfare reform that was subsequently scuttled by Mr Howard amid claims
by the Opposition parties that the sole parenting and disabled pension
would be cut.
Instead, welfare reform was given to the reform group - chaired by
Mission Australia's chief executive, Mr Patrick McClure - for consideration.
Submissions were made, but the report is said to have been heavily
influenced by Mr Howard and the Department of Family and Community Services.
A spokesman for Senator Newman declined to answer questions on the
report's details, saying only that "it will be released shortly".
"This is an independent report [but] as a matter of courtesy it has been
passed to the Government in advance, just as the Ralph report [on
business tax] and others have been."
After further public discussion, a final report would be released by the
end of June.
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