Post by Banker on May 5, 2012 5:46:09 GMT 7
Welfare groups attack plan to cut parental benefits
Welfare groups say the Federal Government's plans to cut parental benefits will not help single parents get a job.
The Government is planning to wind back income support for unemployed parents once their children are at school.
The single parenting payment will stop once the youngest child turns eight and the partnered parenting payment will cut out when the child is six.
That is expected to affect 100,000 people, most of whom are likely to be shifted to unemployment benefits. For single unemployed parents, that means $206 less a fortnight.
Treasurer Wayne Swan has declined to comment on budget speculation but says the emphasis remains on getting low income earners back into the workforce.
"What I'm saying is the Government, over a period of time, has put a premium on getting people into work," he said.
"We're a Labor government and first and foremost our concerns are always for low and middle income earners and ensuring they get the best chance they can to get a job."
But Maree O'Halloran, who heads the National Welfare Rights Network, says it will not help single parents get a job.
"It could actually hurt their prospects. Currently a third of the parents on the single parenting payment already combine income support with casual or part time work," she said.
"Those households will see a significant decrease in income. That will affect families and perhaps drive people further into poverty.
"The budget surplus should not be built on the back of the poorest people in our country, particularly single parents and their children."
Benefits U-turn?
Six years ago Labor opposed the Howard government's plan to cut back on support payments for single, unemployed parents, but now the Gillard Government is planning an even tougher regime for next week's budget.
The Federal Opposition is critical of the move, despite having instigated the policy.
"This looks like just another attack on families because the Government is much better at being tough on families than it is at being tough on itself," Opposition Leader Tony Abbott said.
"If the Government was tougher on its own spending, it wouldn't then have to attack the benefits enjoyed by Australian families the way it looks like doing."
But Shadow Treasurer Joe Hockey acknowledges the policy's roots in the Howard government.
"We initiated Welfare to Work. I seem to recall in those days the Labor Party used to oppose it," he said.
"If you're going to reduce family support, you need to think carefully about it. We support in principle initiatives that move people from welfare into work.
"That's what we believe in but it seems to be that families always pay a price for this Government's economic incompetence."
Back in 2006, Labor described the Howard government's welfare changes as extreme, accusing the government of lifting money out of the pockets of single parents, saying there was "no evidence that dumping people onto the dole" would "help them get a job."
The Coalition's 2006 legislation allowed parents whose child was born before 2000 to receive the parenting allowance until their youngest child turned 16.
But in last year's budget, Labor planned to pare that back to when the child turned 12.
'Condemned to poverty'
Greens Senator Rachel Siewert, who opposed the Howard government's 2006 legislation, has slammed Labor's new crackdown.
She says the move is counter-productive.
"I'm appalled that here's the ALP who were standing up for the rights of the most vulnerable in our community in 2005 and have now completely back flipped to using and to targeting the most vulnerable in our community," she said.
"Cutting people's income support to such a low point where they are condemned to long-term poverty in my mind is not the way that you empower people.
"The way you empower people is to give them an adequate income and to ensure that they have the support necessary to find and sustain employment."
The welfare sector says the golden rule for welfare reform is that you have to spend first to save later, a point emphasised by the Opposition's families spokesman Kevin Andrews, who was a minister in the previous government.
"Now when we introduced welfare reform in 2005, we actually spent $3.2 billion to make sure that there were programs so that people could get into education, they could get into employment and the like," he told Sky News.
"If this is just a cash grab and there are no programs to help these people, then this is going to make it very difficult for a lot of Australians who may well be struggling now."
Part of the Government's sales pitch will be that it will offer career counselling services and childcare at 10 cents an hour for parents who sign up for training or look for work.
Senator Siewert says that is not good enough.
"Offering a bit of career counselling will not do it and while some additional childcare may help some people, for many of the people where they live they cannot access childcare," she said.
"So whether the Government says they'll provide it cheap or free makes no difference if the childcare is non-existent in the first place."
au.news.yahoo.com/latest/a/-/latest/13606240/welfare-groups-attack-plan-to-cut-parental-benefits/
Welfare groups say the Federal Government's plans to cut parental benefits will not help single parents get a job.
The Government is planning to wind back income support for unemployed parents once their children are at school.
The single parenting payment will stop once the youngest child turns eight and the partnered parenting payment will cut out when the child is six.
That is expected to affect 100,000 people, most of whom are likely to be shifted to unemployment benefits. For single unemployed parents, that means $206 less a fortnight.
Treasurer Wayne Swan has declined to comment on budget speculation but says the emphasis remains on getting low income earners back into the workforce.
"What I'm saying is the Government, over a period of time, has put a premium on getting people into work," he said.
"We're a Labor government and first and foremost our concerns are always for low and middle income earners and ensuring they get the best chance they can to get a job."
But Maree O'Halloran, who heads the National Welfare Rights Network, says it will not help single parents get a job.
"It could actually hurt their prospects. Currently a third of the parents on the single parenting payment already combine income support with casual or part time work," she said.
"Those households will see a significant decrease in income. That will affect families and perhaps drive people further into poverty.
"The budget surplus should not be built on the back of the poorest people in our country, particularly single parents and their children."
Benefits U-turn?
Six years ago Labor opposed the Howard government's plan to cut back on support payments for single, unemployed parents, but now the Gillard Government is planning an even tougher regime for next week's budget.
The Federal Opposition is critical of the move, despite having instigated the policy.
"This looks like just another attack on families because the Government is much better at being tough on families than it is at being tough on itself," Opposition Leader Tony Abbott said.
"If the Government was tougher on its own spending, it wouldn't then have to attack the benefits enjoyed by Australian families the way it looks like doing."
But Shadow Treasurer Joe Hockey acknowledges the policy's roots in the Howard government.
"We initiated Welfare to Work. I seem to recall in those days the Labor Party used to oppose it," he said.
"If you're going to reduce family support, you need to think carefully about it. We support in principle initiatives that move people from welfare into work.
"That's what we believe in but it seems to be that families always pay a price for this Government's economic incompetence."
Back in 2006, Labor described the Howard government's welfare changes as extreme, accusing the government of lifting money out of the pockets of single parents, saying there was "no evidence that dumping people onto the dole" would "help them get a job."
The Coalition's 2006 legislation allowed parents whose child was born before 2000 to receive the parenting allowance until their youngest child turned 16.
But in last year's budget, Labor planned to pare that back to when the child turned 12.
'Condemned to poverty'
Greens Senator Rachel Siewert, who opposed the Howard government's 2006 legislation, has slammed Labor's new crackdown.
She says the move is counter-productive.
"I'm appalled that here's the ALP who were standing up for the rights of the most vulnerable in our community in 2005 and have now completely back flipped to using and to targeting the most vulnerable in our community," she said.
"Cutting people's income support to such a low point where they are condemned to long-term poverty in my mind is not the way that you empower people.
"The way you empower people is to give them an adequate income and to ensure that they have the support necessary to find and sustain employment."
The welfare sector says the golden rule for welfare reform is that you have to spend first to save later, a point emphasised by the Opposition's families spokesman Kevin Andrews, who was a minister in the previous government.
"Now when we introduced welfare reform in 2005, we actually spent $3.2 billion to make sure that there were programs so that people could get into education, they could get into employment and the like," he told Sky News.
"If this is just a cash grab and there are no programs to help these people, then this is going to make it very difficult for a lot of Australians who may well be struggling now."
Part of the Government's sales pitch will be that it will offer career counselling services and childcare at 10 cents an hour for parents who sign up for training or look for work.
Senator Siewert says that is not good enough.
"Offering a bit of career counselling will not do it and while some additional childcare may help some people, for many of the people where they live they cannot access childcare," she said.
"So whether the Government says they'll provide it cheap or free makes no difference if the childcare is non-existent in the first place."
au.news.yahoo.com/latest/a/-/latest/13606240/welfare-groups-attack-plan-to-cut-parental-benefits/
