Coalition plan sparks renewed debate over effectiveness of 'work for the dole'Luke Hartsuyker signals return to Howard-era scheme with plan to send jobseekers to aged care homes as maintenance workersThe Abbott government has flagged plans to send recipients of unemployment benefits into aged care homes to help with maintenance as part of its “work for the dole” scheme, triggering renewed debate over the effectiveness of such programs.
The assistant minister for employment, Luke Hartsuyker, signalled the government’s determination to push ahead with its promise to revive the Howard-era scheme, but said the start date and other details were yet to be confirmed.
Compulsory work for the dole – scaled back by the former Labor government – would require people receiving the Newstart allowance to participate in community work such as building walkways, maintaining parks and collecting rubbish.
Local councils, aged care homes and charities would be encouraged to recruit unemployed volunteers. But placements were likely to be limited to three months to deter employers from using the unpaid labour as an excuse to shed permanent paid jobs, according to a News Corp Australia report.
Confirming the compulsory nature of the government’s plans, Hartsuyker said everyone who could be working should be working.
"The government's very focused on ensuring work for the dole does not replace paid employment, but we also want to ensure that placements are as work-like as possible,” he told the ABC on Monday.
“There would be placements in the traditional team environment, which we've seen a lot of in the past, where a crew of workers would build a walkway or conduct a particular project, but I'm also working with stakeholders to look at ways in which we can have people working with not-for-profit employers.
“They would simply host the jobseeker as part of their activity and that might be a maintenance activity in the grounds of an aged care facility, for instance. We would not intend that work for the dole participants would be involved in any way in the care of patients."
The shadow assistant treasurer, Andrew Leigh, said Labor had scaled back the Howard government’s work-for-the-dole program because of evidence it failed to cut unemployment.
Leigh pointed to a 2004 study by the University of Melbourne’s Jeff Borland and Yi-Ping Tseng, of the Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research.
The study, focusing on a pilot phase of the work for the dole scheme between late 1997 and mid-1998, found “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 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”.
Leigh said the “counterintuitive” findings must be heeded.
“I think work for the dole is the classic example of a program that sounds good in theory but isn’t effective in practice and that’s why it’s so important for governments to be guided by the evidence rather than slogans,” he told Guardian Australia on Monday.
“Work for the dole is a great slogan; it just turns out to be bad policy.”
The assistant minister for social services, Mitch Fifield, brushed aside the criticism. He said the Coalition had made it clear before the election it planned to revive the work for the dole scheme.
“But I have every confidence that work for the dole – giving people that experience, giving them that meaning and purpose in contributing to the community at a time when they’re receiving a payment from the community – is an unqualified good thing,” Fifield told Sky News.
The president of the National Welfare Rights Network, Maree O'Halloran, called on the government to use scarce funds to support people into work in ways that were most effective.
O'Halloran reinforced concerns over the effectiveness of work for the dole in getting unemployed people into real jobs, describing the program as highly resource intensive.
"A small percentage of people benefit from the routine of work for the dole, according to some studies, [but] many job seekers find engaging in the scheme stigmatises them and they are very reluctant to disclose participation in this scheme to prospective employers," she said.
The Coalition's Real Solutions booklet indicated an Abbott government would “reinvigorate” the work-for-the-dole program. It said the Coalition would ensure people of working age were actually working, preferably for a wage, but if not, for the dole.
"We will make work-for-the-dole mandatory for all long-term unemployed welfare beneficiaries under 50 years of age and tighten work-for-the-dole requirements," the pre-election document said.
Hartsuyker said details of the program's implementation would be released "in due course" and he was still working through the details "to ensure that placements that are made are appropriate".
"We're currently working through the financial details of options for introducing such a plan, but the bottom line is that getting people into work is a huge benefit to our community; it's a huge financial benefit and it's a huge community benefit because many of the problems we see in society come as a direct result of the deprivation that occurs through lack of work,” he told the ABC.
Hartsuyker said the government would be looking to place jobseekers as close to their home as possible, acknowledging that people on benefits struggled financially to travel long distances to participate in an activity.
He indicated people receiving unemployment benefits would be expected to participate in the scheme.
“If you wish to receive benefits, which are funded by taxpayers who go to work every day, the very least those taxpayers can expect is that where there is a work-for-the-dole program available for a jobseeker they accept it,” Hartsuyker said.
Labor's employment spokesman, Brendan O'Connor, backed the need to do everything possible to get people into work but said Hartsuyker was floating ideas that lacked substance. In a statement, O'Connor said: "Where are the concrete details when it comes to this expanded work for the dole scheme? How much will it cost, how will it work and how many people will be involved?"
Fifield said the government was also introducing a job commitment bonus from 1 July, ensuring long-term unemployed people between the ages 18 and 30 received a payment if they committed to a job for 12 months, and a larger payment if they stayed in work for two years.
He said other incentives would help employers who employed mature age workers and help people who needed to relocate for work.
www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jan/27/work-for-the-dole-renewed-debate-effectiveness
