Anti-welfare articles
Our culture of dependency
Herald-Sun, 22/9/2016
THERE is growing evidence that welfare payments are contributing to a crisis of dependency, particularly among young carers, some of whom will spend the rest of their lives looking after family members who are on welfare.
As reported in the Herald Sun, an analysis of the welfare system has revealed that 11,000 young carers aged between 15 and 24, about one in six will come to rely on welfare payments for the rest of their lives at a cost of $5 billion.
The number of these young carers has tripled over the past decade as more young mums and dads have become reliant on welfare support.
This is not to deny that in many cases there is a need for support, but the research now being looked at by the Turnbull Government shows a welfare system that has bred a sense of welfare entitlement with a $160 billion-a-year bill this year that could reach $227 billion in a decade.
A family with parents on welfare and their teen or young adult children receiving carer benefits may be receiving many hundreds of dollars a week in benefits and can be at risk of developing a mentality of entitlement that removes any motivation to seek work.
How to protect those who are in need of welfare while encouraging those who can work to seek ajob is a dilemma that has confronted successive governments of both persuasions.
In making the details of this latest research available, Social Services Minister Christian Porter is asking for ideas to help break a dangerous cycle of dependency without causing harm to those who cannot help themselves.
The government hopes to shift the debate from spending more money to how the money can be better spent. A Try, Test and Learn Fund will measure the success of services and programs, and implement change where it is shown such services and programs have failed.
There can be incentives.
An early success of this progressive approach has seen more than 5000 more children vaccinated this year under a policy that withholds welfare payments to families who refuse.
No jab, no pay could be extended to the parents of pupils who skip school. No school, no pay could cut truancy and lead to better education outcomes.
Protecting families from the welfare trap is clearly preferable to seeing more families fall into it.
A welfare state can become an unfair state. Its victims are too often those it seeks to help.
The majority of welfare recipients suffer genuine hardship, while others bring about their own dependency on alcohol and drugs, which causes health problems that make it difficult for them to hold down a job or even want a job.
But this should not prevent them from making sure their children go to school.
The need for welfare recipients to attend job interviews and accept meaningful work when it is offered is another reason for withholding or reducing payments when they fail to comply.
This is not harsh, it is reasonable and benefits the beneficiary.
It has been pointed out that 80 per cent of all individual income tax raised in Australia goes to welfare.
Minister Porter notes that social services represents the largest area of government spending, and the fastest-growing, outstripping GDP and the CPI.
Borrowing to pay for today’s welfare system passes the debt to our children, warns Mr Porter. He has asked the nation to think about fair and reasonable changes, and he deserves to be listened to. It cannot and must not continue as it is.
The Tumbull Government is showing a responsible approach to welfare assessment by engaging in an evidence-based review.
Its goals are to identify those at risk of long-term welfare dependency and help them to find employment; to identify and reduce the risk of welfare reliance crossing generations; and to ensure the long-term sustainability of the welfare system.
Throwing more money at a welfare system that doesn’t work to everyone’s benefit has failed.
Encouraging self-reliance rather than welfare reliance is a better investment.
The joyfully jobless leaners
Rita Panahi, Herald Sun
WELL done, Australia. You’ve raised a generation of entitled, do-nothing layabouts lacking both ambition and work ethic; youngsters destined to be a burden on their families and the wider community for years to come.
Dubbed NEETs (not in employment, education or training), there are more than half-a-million of these able-bodied teenagers and young adults who feel no compulsion to contribute to society.
According to an OECD report released this month, a staggering one in eight aged 15 to 29 is neither working nor studying.
The most worrying aspect of the data isn’t just the considerable size of the group but that the research indicates most are not even looking for a job. Only 41 per cent are seeking employment; the remainder are either inactive or unwilling to work or look for a job.
At 12.8 per cent, the youth unemployment rate is more than twice the figure of the official jobless rate of 5.6 per cent.
Last week, we were introduced to a couple of NEETs in the form of dole-bludging duo Ashleigh and Amy.
“I don’t want to work my whole life and just die ... I want more than that,” said 21-year- old Ashleigh. “I would tell you it’s hard to get a job, but to be honest, I don’t even try.
“Centrelink pays my rent and that’s all I need.”
The joyfully jobless Ashleigh sees no appeal in joining the workforce and is on the way to achieving her stated goal of never getting a job. “We normally go driving or chill at Macca’s but I’ll die before I spend my time in an office,” she said.
Her pal, Amy, miraculously managed to find work but was sacked when she failed to show up.
“They pay you nothing so why would I rock up?” she said.
“I call in sick when I’m over it and then they just get rid of me. Not fair, really, because I just want to have a good time and chill. But I don’t want to be fired.”
One can only hope these young ladies are not representative of the NEET generation because if their attitude to work and life is typical, then the nation is doomed.
Who is to blame for this societal malaise? Is it our over-generous welfare, or the education system? Or is it primarily a parenting problem?
Linked from 22/9/2016 Journal