Politics Centrelink

[Over The Post]

They believe only rich people* should get welfare

* and companies

You forgot companies

Especially companies owned by rich people and fat campaigners like Clive Palmer.

 

[Rotayjay]

* and companies

You forgot companies

Especially companies owned by rich people and fat campaigners like Clive Palmer.

That said, God help you if you own a small company, fall on hard times and need to apply for Jobseeker. You and the company can be completely broke but Centrelink's company team can take a month or two to formally decide that you are broke and eligible for Jobseeker.

 

[Over The Post]

Oh yes.

I refer you to:
https://www.bigfooty.com/forum/thre...id-19-pandemic-declared.1234814/post-64600576

 

[Gethelred]

It certainly would be for Bill.
The others, not so much.

Be an awful lot of people worldwide who could do quite a bit with $100 US. Not everywhere's the same quality or expense as Australia.

 

[Rotayjay]

And by the way, Centrelink's response to the long hold times by contracting private call centres is going just swimmingly ...

These private call centre operators have absolutely no interest in properly administering Centrelink issues. They are for-profit large corporations that thrive on paying their employees the absolute minimum the law allows (something on the order of $43,000 per annum, just above the minimum wage) and pressuring them to handle calls quickly (as if you're calling about slow internet rather than your ability to buy food) instead of resolving the issue the person is calling about.

And all this because the Abbott government decided it's a good idea to freeze staffing levels in the welfare system at 2007 levels, when Australia had 5 million fewer people.

Speaking up: Life at the other end of Centrelink phone calls

InDaily recently reported on the mental health impacts for some of the more than one million Australians trying to navigate and live within the welfare system. Today, we report on the toll taken on outsourced Centrelink call centre workers. Four contractors speak up about life at the other end...

indaily.com.au

 

[Kram]

And by the way, Centrelink's response to the long hold times by contracting private call centres is going just swimmingly ...

These private call centre operators have absolutely no interest in properly administering Centrelink issues. They are for-profit large corporations that thrive on paying their employees the absolute minimum the law allows (something on the order of $43,000 per annum, just above the minimum wage) and pressuring them to handle calls quickly (as if you're calling about slow internet rather than your ability to buy food) instead of resolving the issue the person is calling about.

And all this because the Abbott government decided it's a good idea to freeze staffing levels in the welfare system at 2007 levels, when Australia had 5 million fewer people.

Speaking up: Life at the other end of Centrelink phone calls

InDaily recently reported on the mental health impacts for some of the more than one million Australians trying to navigate and live within the welfare system. Today, we report on the toll taken on outsourced Centrelink call centre workers. Four contractors speak up about life at the other end...

indaily.com.au

Hasn't it always been like that though? I remember my first TAFE teacher way back in 1999 saying something about if you have to fix something with your Austudy guys be prepared to wait on the phone for 45 minutes. They randomly cut mine off for zero reason at one stage too.

Liberal governments love gutting anything with welfare but I don't remember Labor doing much about trying to reverse and fix it though. Absolutely no votes to be gained of course.

 

[DaRick]

Hasn't it always been like that though? I remember my first TAFE teacher way back in 1999 saying something about if you have to fix something with your Austudy guys be prepared to wait on the phone for 45 minutes. They randomly cut mine off for zero reason at one stage too.

Liberal governments love gutting anything with welfare but I don't remember Labor doing much about trying to reverse and fix it though. Absolutely no votes to be gained of course.

From memory the ALP only made token changes to the whole Employment Services mess.

 

[brucetiki]

And by the way, Centrelink's response to the long hold times by contracting private call centres is going just swimmingly ...

These private call centre operators have absolutely no interest in properly administering Centrelink issues. They are for-profit large corporations that thrive on paying their employees the absolute minimum the law allows (something on the order of $43,000 per annum, just above the minimum wage) and pressuring them to handle calls quickly (as if you're calling about slow internet rather than your ability to buy food) instead of resolving the issue the person is calling about.

And all this because the Abbott government decided it's a good idea to freeze staffing levels in the welfare system at 2007 levels, when Australia had 5 million fewer people.

Speaking up: Life at the other end of Centrelink phone calls

InDaily recently reported on the mental health impacts for some of the more than one million Australians trying to navigate and live within the welfare system. Today, we report on the toll taken on outsourced Centrelink call centre workers. Four contractors speak up about life at the other end...

indaily.com.au

Several of these contractors have also just cut back a heap of hours for staff as well (these centres are highly casualised apparently).

 

[Hawk Dork]

They believe only rich people should get welfare

* and companies

You forgot companies

Especially companies owned by rich people and fat campaigners like Clive Palmer.

“The impact of earnings tax concessions means higher-income earners receive more lifetime government support in dollar terms than lower- and middle-income earners.”

According to the Callaghan review released on Friday, there are more than 11,000 people with more than $5 million in super savings, each receiving an annual tax concession on their earnings of about $70,000.

Those with a balance of $10 million get a yearly $165,000 tax concession free kick.

“The cost of superannuation tax concessions is projected to grow as a proportion of GDP such that by around 2050 it exceeds the cost of age pension expenditure as a per cent of GDP.”

According to the confidential documents collated for the ATO’s surveillance program of the top 100 SMSFs, most of the biggest self-managed nest eggs are also receiving an average of almost $400,000 in franking credit refunds each year, resulting in the government handing almost $30 million a year to 73 funds in the top 100.

'Tax minimisation strategy': $90b stashed in richest funds

More than 11,000 people have more than $5 million in super savings and each receives an annual tax concession of about $70,000, according to the Retirement Income Review.

www.afr.com

Thats the equivalent of 10 or more years worth of the dole per rich man per year and for the really rich upwards of 100s of dole cheques per per week every year

Lifters and leaners ???

 

[SaintsSeptember]

Be an awful lot of people worldwide who could do quite a bit with $100 US. Not everywhere's the same quality or expense as Australia.

Sure would help them a lot for a couple of weeks, then back to poverty.

 

[Gethelred]

Sure would help them a lot for a couple of weeks, then back to poverty.

I think you're stretching. Could buy a goat, a cow, some sheep, drinking water, medicine. Hell, a village puts their $100 together, and buys a well; that's water for everyone, forever.

Point being, money is only finite when the things you use it for are also finite. Purchasing long term products that can supply food/goods for a long time or can serve as a money generator long term means that money goes a long way.

The starving in Africa aren't going to go out and purchase thins chips and cadbury.

 

[Frank Bunn]

That sort of cruelty is the cornerstone of Scummo's faith, he's wealthy and successful, therefore he's been smiled on by god and is virtuous. If you aren't successful and wealthy that's because you've somehow angered god and should be punished.

Do you consider yourself wealthy and successful?

Has that success, or lack of, been determined by government policy? Or by personal choices?

 

[Over The Post]

By God and your church, Sorted.

 

[utility]

From memory the ALP only made token changes to the whole Employment Services mess.

Kevin Rudd's wife got rich off of unemployment "services" so perhaps the non-token changes weren't public-facing.

 

[Ned_Flanders]

Credit where credits due, the Govt is working overtime to get this guy a job AND keep him COVID safe

Scott Morrison defends Mathias Cormann’s $4000 per hour flights (news.com.au)

 

[Ghost Patrol]

Credit where credits due, the Govt is working overtime to get this guy a job AND keep him COVID safe

Scott Morrison defends Mathias Cormann’s $4000 per hour flights (news.com.au)

So if Cormann gets covid, it's a waste of money?

 

[Over The Post]

Credit where credits due, the Govt is working overtime to get this guy a job AND keep him COVID safe

It certainly is the best form of welfare.

 

[Over The Post]

So if Cormann gets covid, it's a waste of money?

I'd say its money well spent.

 

[Over The Post]

'No evidence' doubled JobSeeker was a disincentive to work: Academics

Two of Australia's top welfare academics say there is no evidence doubling the dole discouraged unemployed workers from accepting another job.

www.smh.com.au

 

[Kram]

You are dreaming if you think that having it at the covid level wouldn't be a dissinscentive for some people not to take up work.

Bring the rate up towards something similar to the pension imo.

 

[Ghost Patrol]

You are dreaming if you think that having it at the covid level wouldn't be a dissinscentive for some people not to take up work.

Depends on the job.

 

[Over The Post]

You are dreaming if you think that having it at the covid level wouldn't be a dissinscentive for some people not to take up work.

I agree with you: some people would. The old "dole bludger" sitting at home on their arse content to have the taxpayer supply their drugs, booze and ****. These people exist.

But who these days is far more likely to be older, longer without work, and suffering from various mental illnesses, after a lifetime of valuable contribution to society and paying taxes, through having to suddenly deal with non-stop rejection, making pointless applications for jobs that probably don't even exist except as bait for labour hire companies, and having to prove to the JSP apparatchiks that they are not in fact criminals determined to have more than the barest pittance they are allowed.

In the same way that I do not want to break a lease, sell all my stuff, pack up the rest of my shit and move to the country for a casual seasonal job picking fruit at minimum wage, or even less if it is piecework and I'm too old and slow. I guess that makes me a bludger too.

So lets **** everybody because of the tiny minority who rort the system. As compared with those who sit in Canberra and rort the system for hundreds of millions of dollars and get off Scott free.

 

[JackOutback]

You are dreaming if you think that having it at the covid level wouldn't be a dissinscentive for some people not to take up work.

Bring the rate up towards something similar to the pension imo.

The number of people willing to live in relative poverty just so they don’t have to work would be fairly small and the amount of effort spent trying to force them into work hardly cost effective.

It’s an ideological crusade to make them work when we’re probably better off moving on and leaving them be. Most people aren’t willing to get by on the bare minimum.

 

[Kram]

The number of people willing to live in relative poverty just so they don’t have to work would be fairly small and the amount of effort spent trying to force them into work hardly cost effective.

It’s an ideological crusade to make them work when we’re probably better off moving on and leaving them be. Most people aren’t willing to get by on the bare minimum.

I totally agree but I'm specifically talking at the previous significantly increased supplement level here.

iirc the covid rate was about $550 a week? Someone on a minimum wage casual job at $24 would have to work 23 hours to just break even with that. And they could have to eventually pay a little tax as well. You can't tell me that wouldn't be a deterrent for a decent amount of people not to take low end work.

It's barely worth talking about anyway because neither Liberal or Labor would ever put it at that level permanently anyway.

 

[eddiesmith]

I totally agree but I'm specifically talking at the previous significantly increased supplement level here.

iirc the covid rate was about $550 a week? Someone on a minimum wage casual job at $24 would have to work 23 hours to just break even with that. And they could have to eventually pay a little tax as well. You can't tell me that wouldn't be a deterrent for a decent amount of people not to take low end work.

It's barely worth talking about anyway because neither Liberal or Labor would ever put it at that level permanently anyway.

A fortnight which put it above the pension. Should always be less than the pension. Poor pensioners never got any Covid supplements