Surviving without welfare http://www.theage.com.au/frontpage/20001113/A46895-2000Nov13.html By XAVIER LA CANNA THE AGE ONLINE Monday 13 November 2000 Schemes to force people off welfare were actually making people more dependent on the government to survive, a new report today claimed. The Working out of Welfare report commissioned by St Vincent de Paul said the Federal Government's stringent activity statements and punishments for minor welfare breaches forced some people to survive without any money at all. The punishments the government imposes included having welfare payments reduced or cut off if forms were not properly completed or filed late. "In turn this leads to an increase of people being forced to live for long periods without any payment at all. This has the unintentional effect of creating greater dependency as people fall behind in their weekly commitments ..." the report said. The report highlighted five welfare traps; insufficient social security payments, a lack of social support networks, a decline in affordable housing, decreases in public health and education/training spending and high rates of long-term unemployment. St Vincent de Paul's Victorian president Gerard Dowling said in a statement that people should not be surprised by the findings of the report. "The two most rapidly rising demographic groups seeking assistance are people suffering from a mental illness and young people," the statement said. A spokesman for Employment Services Minister Tony Abbott said the minister would not respond to the report. He said a letter from the minister to St Vincent de Paul adequately explained the government's position in relation to the criticisms. "The Federal Government currently distributes some $26 million to organisations such as St Vincent de Paul for emergency family assistance. It is almost a given that government funding in these areas will never be enough because human beings can always find new ways to get themselves into trouble," the letter said. Mr Abbott also said he believed the government's system of mutual obligation was in line with Catholic doctrine. He attacked the charity's belief that increasing welfare payments would help the poor. "Topping up welfare payments can certainly make beneficiaries' lives easier in the short term, but is unlikely to get people jobs or even to reduce the numbers considered poor in a society where poverty is a relative concept," Mr Abbott said in the letter. - -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Archived at http://www.cat.org.au/lists/leftlink/ Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Subscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink Unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink
