http://www.theaustralian.com.au/index.asp?URL=/national/4313448.htm Truant teens lose dole 10feb99 THOUSANDS of jobless teenagers have been struck off the dole for failing to return to school under tough new youth allowance rules. A Senate estimates committee was told yesterday 3000 young people had lost their benefit for not returning to class. The Federal Government has ruled all unemployed 16 and 17-year-olds must return to school or training or lose the dole. The rule applied from January 1 and initially 10,000 teenagers had their payments cancelled. Since then 7000 have reapplied and either demonstrated they are returning to school or training, or have been granted an exemption, so payment has restarted. A Department of Family and Community Services official said almost 9000 teenagers had returned to education or training under the new allowance. Opposition family and community services spokesman Wayne Swan said the new rules had caused needless harm to thousands of young people. "If 10,000 were cut off and it came down to 3000, then 7000 were affected in a way they didn't need to be," Mr Swan said. "How many of these people have been the victims of a gridlock in Centrelink?" Mr Swan said the youth allowance rules had been a nightmare for Centrelink and caused hardship for thousands, not just the young, with an enormous overload of inquiries. A spokesman for Family and Community Services Minister Jocelyn Newman said the final figure of 3000 was relatively modest. Senator Newman's spokesman said this figure might drop even further as young people decided to return to school or training. Forcing young people back to school has been controversial but Prime Minister John Howard has committed the government to "breaking the cycle" of unemployment, especially for young people. -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List As vilified, slandered and attacked by One Nation mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.alexia.net.au/~www/mhutton/index.html Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Subscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink Unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink
