Politics Centrelink

[ash_1050]

QLD Strawberries not really doing much to clean up their reputation as misleading and scummy.
This article advises "Queensland strawberry industry offers $100k cash prize in bid to entice harvest workers".

Until you read the terms and conditions:
*Every week of full time work earns you 100 'points'
*You need to earn 1000 'points' to be eligible to win (you can earn bonus points). You get 1 entry per 1000 points earned.
*Your points are tallied up by the farm and then submitted to someone who tallies them all up
*10 people who have accumulated 1000 points are selected at random to participate for the $100k prize. The draw takes place 14/10/21.
*If you're selected you need to appear at the Sandstone Point Hotel, at 2.30pm AEST on Thursday 21/10/21
*There are 100 strawberries punnets numbered 1-100. Each of the 10 'winners' get to pick 1 of the punnets.
*Only 1 of the 100 punnets contains $100,000. The rest all contain $1,000.

So basically you bust your arse to earn 1000 points, which you then have to make sure your boss submits to the competition. If you're selected you need to then show up at a pub for a 1/100 chance of winning $100k. For anyone who works May-September this would mean having to essentially fly/drive back up to the middle of nowhere to then have a chance at winning. Pathetic.

 

[Ghost Patrol]

You could debate the "good for the kids thing" big time.
Of course its good for the parents.
And of course, if all the childcare was free, we could give all those underpaid childcare workers a pay rise ( could never happen when parents have to foot the bill ).

Why not have free meals for those annoying little rug rats as well?
Why should they cost something?

Because they grow up into taxpayers.

Or would you prefer they just had to pay off the boomer debts and franking credits instead? Why not throw their own costs into the mix?

 

[Chief]

QLD Strawberries not really doing much to clean up their reputation as misleading and scummy.
This article advises "Queensland strawberry industry offers $100k cash prize in bid to entice harvest workers".

Until you read the terms and conditions:
*Every week of full time work earns you 100 'points'
*You need to earn 1000 'points' to be eligible to win (you can earn bonus points). You get 1 entry per 1000 points earned.
*Your points are tallied up by the farm and then submitted to someone who tallies them all up
*10 people who have accumulated 1000 points are selected at random to participate for the $100k prize. The draw takes place 14/10/21.
*If you're selected you need to appear at the Sandstone Point Hotel, at 2.30pm AEST on Thursday 21/10/21
*There are 100 strawberries punnets numbered 1-100. Each of the 10 'winners' get to pick 1 of the punnets.
*Only 1 of the 100 punnets contains $100,000. The rest all contain $1,000.

So basically you bust your arse to earn 1000 points, which you then have to make sure your boss submits to the competition. If you're selected you need to then show up at a pub for a 1/100 chance of winning $100k. For anyone who works May-September this would mean having to essentially fly/drive back up to the middle of nowhere to then have a chance at winning. Pathetic.

Look around for the various articles and podcasts on "giveaway breakage".

It's common: advertise massive prize but make it hard for people to collect.

Hoover is a classic example where this failed. Gave away two return flights from UK to USA for every Hoover purchased. People bought their products like mad, then found they were given flights from airports on the other end of the country, among other dodgy practices.

Then after Hoover had to pay out tens of millions under a court order, there were masses of cheap Hoover products, unopened, going second hand so after the giveaway they couldn't sell anything.

Hoover free flights promotion - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[GreyCrow]

Krusty the Klown got caught out in 1984

 

[NSWCROW]

Any idea how someone who was on DES 4 years ago got shifted to jobactive the moment that the covid supplement began ?.....


Theories ?

 

[eddiesmith]

So last time I was working, Centrelink reporting meant you had to report on your income for the fortnight cycle of your benefits and if it didn’t match up with pay dates you had to predict your income earned.

Yet now I go in and it won’t let you report on a future pay date? Fine by me!!! But seems a stupid system.

 

[Over The Post]

No, you now have to report the money actually paid to you within the benefit fortnight.

It was simpler until the one-page, two-entry, click click was replaced by sixteen ******* screens of repetitive garbage.

 

[NSWCROW]

Cost of Coalition’s privatised disability employment system blows out to $40,000 per job

Exclusive: report reveals government’s reforms increased the cost of the program by 48% in two years yet jobseekers who found work only increased by 8%

www.theguardian.com

The cost of the Coalition’s privatised disability employment system has ballooned to nearly $40,000 per long-term job placement, according to a report that reveals Coalition reforms boosted provider revenue but didn’t lift jobseekers’ chances of finding work.

*en remember the frothing from abbott and the murdoch press over welfare ??????.......................


* off

 

[Over The Post]

Disability discrimination commissioner reveals his NDIS independent assessment trial was 'unsatisfactory'

Ben Gauntlett says his experience undergoing an independent assessment left him concerned whether the current process is compliant with human rights principles.

www.sbs.com.au

Well if a 7yo girl in a wheelchair can be independently assessed as having "no mobility issues" and it took her parents 16 weeks to get access to the assessment, I would suggest to the disability discrimination commissioner that he shouldn't be surprised.

 

[Freomaniac]

Heartlessness is an essential characteristic for employment as a job agency consultant.
That's how the system is designed.
The various community organisations that help people negotiate their way through the Centerlink minefield are bracing for an inundation when mutual obligation returns. Sadly, the signs are not good.

you are correct and I agree

 

[Freomaniac]

Just Posted this on another thread....

The US mentaility is different to the Australian mentality....

In the US, you get money for 6 months and are left to be given food stamps.

In Australia, You do get some payments. If you are unemployed for 6 months, you do work for the dole. I hate work for the dole because its modern day slavery. If you got paid a minmum wage then it would be a good incentive.

Saying that, I dislike job agencies, they are government funded and some Consultants are pieces of garbage.

Yes, there is no shame being on centrelink. You look for work or study to get certificates or diplomas or licenses which lead to work.

I did a 4 week course recently and got a white card and forklife license to improve my resume.

 

[SaintsSeptember]

Just Posted this on another thread....

The US mentaility is different to the Australian mentality....

In the US, you get money for 6 months and are left to be given food stamps.

In Australia, You do get some payments. If you are unemployed for 6 months, you do work for the dole. I hate work for the dole because its modern day slavery. If you got paid a minmum wage then it would be a good incentive.

Saying that, I dislike job agencies, they are government funded and some Consultants are pieces of garbage.

Yes, there is no shame being on centrelink. You look for work or study to get certificates or diplomas or licenses which lead to work.

I did a 4 week course recently and got a white card and forklife license to improve my resume.

That's not slavery, you are downplaying the kind of things that happen in modern day slavery.
Its a major thing now for companies to stamp it out through their supply chains, and its not always easy.

Anyway, "work for the dole" is not one of the risk factors in it.

 

[Chief]

That's not slavery, you are downplaying the kind of things that happen in modern day slavery.
Its a major thing now for companies to stamp it out through their supply chains, and its not always easy.

Unless you’re a US company in which case it’s often a part of the business model.

Private Companies Producing with US Prison Labor in 2020: Prison Labor in the US, Part II — Corporate Accountability Lab

This post follows on from our post exploring the use of prison labor during the Covid-19 pandemic. It details the current forms that prison labor can take and, using what little public data is available, highlights some of the companies using prison labor in the United States.

corpaccountabilitylab.org

 

[Over The Post]

Unless you’re a US company in which case it’s often a part of the business model.

Private Companies Producing with US Prison Labor in 2020: Prison Labor in the US, Part II — Corporate Accountability Lab

This post follows on from our post exploring the use of prison labor during the Covid-19 pandemic. It details the current forms that prison labor can take and, using what little public data is available, highlights some of the companies using prison labor in the United States.

corpaccountabilitylab.org

So you're saying orange is the new black?

 

[Jimmy_the_Gent]

Saying that, I dislike job agencies, they are government funded and some Consultants are pieces of garbage.

> Had a friend work at a job agency for a few months.
> The agency gets paid partly based on how many jobseekers they find a job for.
> The more difficult the case, the more money the agency gets. They take into account how long someone has been out of work, their level of education, whether they have any disabilities etc
> Consultants have set targets, sort of like sales
> Targets get progressively harder over time
> Fail to meet your targets and you face the sack
> You need to canvas positions from employers but no decent employer needs your help
> Lots of your jobseekers don't want jobs. Especially not from inferior employers
> Anyone with other options wouldn't work at a job agency and leaves asap
> Those with no other options are willing to play a little dirty to stay employed
> Staff are generally inexperienced (my friends agency had no people with over 12 months in the position) and stressed, so you're not going to get taught well or helped
> Basically a s**t show

 

[Over The Post]

If I get a job (pretty much by myself, the JSP has a couple of sympathetic workers but they are run off their feet) and stick at it for six months, my JSP will get over eight grand.

A wonderful business to be in.

BTW, utterly typical of the system:
get a txt saying mutual obligations are suspended until after lockdown
get a txt day after saying compulsory phone appointment 9am tomorrow
waiting waiting waiting following day <crickets>

 

[Over The Post]

Jordi found two jobs, both tried to underpay her then stopped giving her shifts

Australia Talks data shows the vast majority of people think job security is a concern, and experts say the nature of casual work is part of the problem.

www.abc.net.au

 

[Over The Post]

Video is two years old, story is unchanged except the numbers are worse.

 

[Ghost Patrol]

BTW, utterly typical of the system:
get a txt saying mutual obligations are suspended until after lockdown
get a txt day after saying compulsory phone appointment 9am tomorrow
waiting waiting waiting following day <crickets>

Mine got suspended until after Vic lockdown as well, but I'm in Queensland.

Not complaining, they are a waste of time anyway. But they are idiots.

 

[Ghost Patrol]

Timing was perfect. Mutual obligations were restored at midnight, at exactly the same time the new reporting period started for me.

Lesson learnt - always wait till the last day of reporting to enter your job applications.

 

[Over The Post]

We've got until Monday 7 June. Nothing about it being extended beyond that.

 

[Over The Post]

Extended to Jun 15.

Anyway:

Robodebt condemned as a 'shameful chapter' in withering assessment by federal court judge

Federal Court Justice Bernard Murphy delivers a scathing assessment of the unlawful Robodebt recovery scheme, calling it a "massive failure in public administration" of Australia's social security scheme.

www.abc.net.au

 

[Reynolds Number]

Video is two years old, story is unchanged except the numbers are worse.

My father was fortunate to get a job with a local council last year because he was not far off being thrown on the scrapheap. I really worry for many people past their late 50s especially tradies and labourers.

 

[Over The Post]

I lost my career job nearly seven years ago at the age of 51. I did casual work for 18 months after that, since then I've had seven weeks of casual work three years ago. Still going through the farce of applying for 20 jobs a month, when I haven't had a sick note exemption from doing it. My gmail seek folder has hundreds (HUNDREDS!) of "you have applied for" acknowledgements, a few dozen automated "we received your application"s, and two actual emails from a person saying sorry but good luck for the future.

There's a bit of victim mentality creeping in, helped along by not seeing any way out of poverty and the grind of doing the performing-seal requirements each month in order to get the dole pittance. I'm quite ill right now, but in Centrelink's perverse dystopia, my medical exemption was refused because my condition is not considered temporary (in their opinion). Permanently too sick to work, but not sick enough to be remotely considered for a sickness benefit, therefore you must be actively looking for work. Joseph Heller wrote a book about it.

So I'm applying for jobs because I have to, and if god forbid someone actually wants to take it further than scanning and binning my resume, I probably would be unfit to do it. Welcome to the System.

 

[Over The Post]

The end of JobKeeper wasn't a blip. It might have cost close to 100,000 jobs

When JobKeeper was withdrawn at the end of March, the Bureau of Statistics said there was no "discernible impact" and the unemployment rate actually fell. But a more complex picture is starting to emerge, writes Peter Martin.

www.abc.net.au

tl;dr: "Unemployment percentage dropped!" trumpeted the government. Tens of thousands without work said "* this, I can't deal with Centrelink" therefore weren't included in the numbers.