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Post by Banker on Jan 7, 2012 6:42:07 GMT 7
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Post by latindancer on Mar 29, 2012 5:18:56 GMT 7
Urgent call to increase the dole The Australian Council of Social Service has again called on the Federal Government to urgently increase the dole by $50 a week and to index the payment to real wages. A report by the University of New South Wales has found those on unemployment benefits are worse off in real terms today than they were 15 years ago. The report's author, Professor Peter Whiteford, says the disadvantage gap will continue to grow as long as Newstart and Youth Allowance are indexed to CPI, not real wages. "People on Newstart are just perpetually falling further behind the rest of the community," he said. Professor Whiteford says recipients of Youth Allowance and Newstart are living below the poverty line. "We just had really large increases in economic resources in the vast majority of households but the unemployed haven't had anything," he said. "They've just been kept back in the mid-1990's in terms of their relative living standards." But Treasurer Wayne Swan says the Government's priority is not to increase the dole but to get people back into work. Australian Council of Social Service chief executive Cassandra Goldie says that is not realistic. "Sixty per cent have been on the payment for 12 months or more," she said. She says many are living on as little as $35 a day. Dr Goldie is calling on the Government to restructure the tax system to help fund the urgently needed increase and to link the dole to wage growth. "The Treasurer has been out there talking about sharing wealth and having a sensible conversation where all the voices are heard about how we do that and we think ongoing reforms to the tax system is an important part of that," she said. au.news.yahoo.com/queensland/a/-/mp/13291487/urgent-call-to-increase-the-dole/ |
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