Right: Centrelink - the government department that oversees Australia's pensions, social security and unemployment payments. With a supposed base of "mutual obligation", many recipients of these payments are questioning exactly what the phrase means.
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Background information
The information contained below has been taken from the Wikipedia entry titled Social Security in Australia
Some modifications have been made to make the information more current.
Newstart Allowance is an unemployment benefit paid to unemployed people aged 22 to 64. To be eligible, a person must apply for the benefit and be actively seeking work. On 1 July 1991, it replaced the Unemployment Benefit (UB) which had been unchanged since 1945. It was part of a government reform called Newstart - the Active Employment Strategy.
Terms under which Newstart is granted
It is paid on the basis of a 'mutual agreement' between the customer and Centrelink, where Centrelink will continue to pay fortnightly payments to the customer for so long as the customer attempts to find employment and fulfills the mutual obligation requirements.
These mutual agreements are negotiated between Centrelink, the job seeker and their Job Services Australia provider or Disability Employment Services provider, and are recorded into an Employment Pathway Plan or EPP.
Activities to which a job seeker may have to agree, in order to continue receiving the Newstart Allowance, include applying for a specific number of jobs (usually ten) per fortnight and recording these applications in a Centrelink issued diary, undertaking vocational education or training, paid work experience, participation in a labour market program or Work for the Dole project, and other activities, such as voluntary work if considered appropriate by Centrelink. For example, more elderly customers who have been made redundant and are approaching the age pension age, and who may face considerable difficulties re-entering the labour market, are often permitted to fulfil their plan by engaging in voluntary activities alone. A job seeker has to nominate and engage in one activity (for example, either a vocational education activity or Work for the Dole activity) in any one mutual obligation period (lasting six months at a time).
The obligations of Newstart recipients
Clients are not expected to engage in the more intensive of these activities as soon as their receipt of the allowance commences. The amount of activity required on behalf of the client in order to continue receiving his/her benefit is usually staggered as follows:
Ordinarily, during the first three months of unemployment, a job seeker has no other obligations but to submit a fortnightly Application For Payment form at the local office. The form asks the applicant a number of questions about his /her circumstances and for the basic details of four positions for which the job seeker applied in the last fortnight. Customers may also be required to make up to 10 'Job Search Contacts' per fortnight (dependent on the local labour market and their personal circumstances) and record the details of these jobs within a specifically issued Job Seeker Diary for a given period of time. The job seeker then takes the Application For Payment form personally to the local Centrelink Office. He will then attend a short one-on-one interview with a Centrelink officer. The interview is usually for the purposes of checking that the application form is in order and that the applicant is aware of any appointments that may need to be attended, and obligations that may need to be met. The client at this stage also has the opportunity to talk to a Centrelink officer about any problems the client may be encountering without having to make a prior appointment first.
If after an initial three months of unemployment, during which the job seeker has only to hand in the fortnightly application form and record the Job Seeker Diary, the client remains unemployed; the client will be required to attend appointments with a Job Services Australia provider whose responsibility it is to assist the client to re-enter the work force. The job seeker also has to attend a two-week training course which focusses on job searching skills such as writing resumes and attending interviews.
If the customer remains unemployed for twelve months, they are then subject to the Work Experience Phase of their Employment Pathway Plan, which consists of more intensive assistance involving the activities listed above, such as, Work for the Dole, accredited study, part-time work, volunteer work or a combination of these. A Job Services Australia provider may require a Newstart recipient to do voluntary work (up to 15 hours a week), for which clients receive a supplement to their benefit of $20.80 per fortnight. The supplement is also paid to Work for the Dole participants. They must also continue to apply for 4 or more positions at the same time to meet their mutual obligations.
If the client becomes long-term unemployed (24 months or longer), the client's activity requirements will usually consist of another Work Experience Phase style activity for six months in any twelve-month period. (Australia's unemployment benefits do not have a time limit: it is, in theory, possible to remain on unemployment benefits for the whole of one's working life).
Newstart Allowance Rate
The current Newstart Allowance is set at $489.70 per fortnight for a single adult with no children. A single recipient with dependent children receives $529.80 per fortnight, while an unemployed couple each receive $442 per fortnight. Varying rates of rental assistance may be available.
However, this basic rate does not include supplement payments which can include Rent Assistance of up to A$121.00 per fortnight, and other supplements, such as Pharmaceutical Allowance, Telephone Allowance, Remote Area Allowance, Training Supplement and the Work For The Dole Supplement; which are paid depending on personal circumstances and activity. Rates differ for married couples, registered relationships or de facto couples (including same sex or opposite sex couples) and persons with children. Despite significant increases in the cost of living, the increases to the Newstart Allowance have not kept pace with inflation. The initial income threshold has only risen from 1987's $60 to $62 in 2000 where it remains today.
Streamlining of programs
On 1 March 2010, the Australian Government introduced changes to Disability Employment Services. Multiple existing programs were streamlined into two clearly distinct programs, making assessment and referral processes less complex.
All eligible job seekers with disability have access to individually tailored services which meet their needs including capacity building, training, work experience and other 'interventions' to help participants obtain and maintain suitable employment. DES providers support and manage a participant's condition in the workplace, along with providing ongoing support in the workplace for as long as it is required.
New compliance rules were introduced on 1 July 2011, dealing with client meetings with a DES provider and payment suspension. Data released in mid-November 2013 showed that the number of welfare recipients had grown by 55%. In 2007, 228,621 Newstart Allowance recipients were registered, a total that increased to 646,414 in March 2013.
In the 2016 Australian federal budget, the Turnbull Government planned to cease the clean energy supplement of $4.40 for people beginning Newstart after 20 September.
Criticisms of the Newstart Allowance
In 2017, the Australian Council of Social Service stated that the Newstart Allowance was $160 below the poverty line. The Business Council of Australia also advocates for increasing the Newstart Allowance, saying that it is impossible to live on.
In March 2018, Newstart was raised by 50 cents per day, which was criticised as inadequate. After handing down the 2018 Australian federal budget, Treasurer Scott Morrison rejected calls to increase the rate of the Newstart Allowance, saying my priority is to give tax relief to people who are working and paying taxes. Newstart has not been increased since 1994, when it was increased by $2.95 per week.
The Anti Poverty Network of South Australia in 2018 with the Newstart Choir recorded a revised version of the It's Time song used by the Australian Labor Party in 1972 to win the election after 23 years of Conservative Government. The song is a campaign to the Australian Labor Party to commit if elected at the next federal election to raising Newstart.
In September 2018, the base Newstart rate was raised by $2.20 per week