Post by Banker on Apr 18, 2012 6:30:13 GMT 7
AN ESTIMATED 113,000 Australians are missing out on the Parenting Payment despite being eligible to receive it but the federal government shows no interest in trying to locate them, a new study claims.
It says the government takes an active approach to help people find lost or unclaimed superannuation but does not help people claim social security payments they are entitled to get.
The extra Parenting Payment alone could cost the government $1.2 billion a year.
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The study by David Baker, acting research director at The Australia Institute, says ''the government is preoccupied with finding people who are receiving assistance to which they do not qualify; consequently it ignores people who are missing out''.
It says it is difficult to assess the number of eligible Australians who are falling through the social security safety net. The federal government last made a calculation in 2004 when it concluded 1.3 million appeared to qualify for assistance but were not getting it.
An analysis by Mr Baker, based on data from Centrelink and the 2009 Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia survey found 113,176 families should be getting the Parenting Payment, paid to single parents and to parents whose partners had low incomes, but were missing out. The payment would have been about $206 a week to them.
A nationally representative online survey by The Australia Institute found of 1034 people more than one-third said they had ''definitely'' missed out on social security benefits either because they had not realised they were eligible or the process discouraged them from applying.
Mr Baker said the data matching program the government used to identify welfare cheats could be adapted to find the people who were missing out on payments. The program cross-checks income and personal details held by government agencies.
Read more: www.smh.com.au/opinion/political-news/thousands-miss-out-on-parent-payments-20120417-1x5nh.html#ixzz1sLMCkYW8
It says the government takes an active approach to help people find lost or unclaimed superannuation but does not help people claim social security payments they are entitled to get.
The extra Parenting Payment alone could cost the government $1.2 billion a year.
Advertisement: Story continues below
The study by David Baker, acting research director at The Australia Institute, says ''the government is preoccupied with finding people who are receiving assistance to which they do not qualify; consequently it ignores people who are missing out''.
It says it is difficult to assess the number of eligible Australians who are falling through the social security safety net. The federal government last made a calculation in 2004 when it concluded 1.3 million appeared to qualify for assistance but were not getting it.
An analysis by Mr Baker, based on data from Centrelink and the 2009 Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia survey found 113,176 families should be getting the Parenting Payment, paid to single parents and to parents whose partners had low incomes, but were missing out. The payment would have been about $206 a week to them.
A nationally representative online survey by The Australia Institute found of 1034 people more than one-third said they had ''definitely'' missed out on social security benefits either because they had not realised they were eligible or the process discouraged them from applying.
Mr Baker said the data matching program the government used to identify welfare cheats could be adapted to find the people who were missing out on payments. The program cross-checks income and personal details held by government agencies.
Read more: www.smh.com.au/opinion/political-news/thousands-miss-out-on-parent-payments-20120417-1x5nh.html#ixzz1sLMCkYW8