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Temporary respite for Welfare cheats (Read 765 times)
juliar
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Temporary respite for Welfare cheats
Apr 7th, 2020 at 3:39pm
 
Australian government “pauses” hounding welfare recipients in face of massive jobless queues
By Margaret Rees 6 April 2020

The Australian government said last Friday it would partly suspend the pursuit of alleged welfare debts for six months during the coronavirus crisis, a measure triggered by a growing public outcry and the political establishment’s fear of social unrest.

Even though tens of thousands of newly unemployed people struggled to apply for welfare assistance on huge jobless queues, Services Australia was still deploying 1,500 “compliance officers” to pursue alleged debts until the pause was announced on Friday.

Outraged welfare recipients had taken to social media, as well as some corporate media outlets, to reveal threatening “accounts payable” letters they had received from Centrelink, the government’s welfare agency, demanding payment of supposed over-payments.

In addition, Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s Liberal-National government is still delaying repaying hundreds of millions of dollars to recipients who were unlawfully accused of over-claiming benefits under the government’s discredited automated “robodebt” scheme, even as the government channels billions of dollars in “rescue packages” to big business.

Friday’s decision, described as a “pause” on “certain debt activity,” was announced by Government Services Minister Stuart Robert, who said it would allow the redeployment of staff to process benefits claims. But he said “fraud and serious non-compliance” action would continue, leaving the door open to continuing to hound thousands of welfare recipients.

At the same time, Services Australia issued a notice that it intends to use Medicare records for a data-matching program that would include “detecting over payments and recovering debt.” The Medicare information would be used to “make sure Centrelink payments are only made to people who are entitled to those payments” and “help the whole-of-government approach to identify serious and complex fraud.”

The notice indicates that, having been compelled by a Federal Court ruling to abandon the automated “robodebt” scheme of computer-generated debt allegations, the government will now use Medicare data to pursue supposed welfare benefit over payments.

“Services Australia expects to match approximately 9.8 million unique records held in its Centrelink database,” it said. “Based on fraud criteria, Services Australia anticipates it will examine approximately 5,000-9,000 records per year.”

Families and Social Services Minister Anne Ruston last month issued a “public interest immunity” claim to prevent her department officials answering questions in a Senate committee hearing about the robodebt “income compliance scheme,” which is now the subject of a class action by about 10,000 people.

The class action—“Katherine Prygodicz & Ors versus Commonwealth of Australia”—accuses the government of unjust enrichment and negligence, basically for gouging illegal repayments out of poor and vulnerable welfare recipients and denying any duty of care to them.

Despite Ruston’s manoeuvre to avoid public scrutiny, a leaked confidential cabinet submission revealed that the government expects to lose the class action, so it will have to refund 449,500 debt repayments worth a total of $555.6 million.

However, the payments will not commence until July and will take 12 months to complete, according to the cabinet submission by Ruston, Stuart Robert and Attorney-General Christian Porter.

Services Australia stopped initiating reviews under the robodebt method of automatic income averaging last December, after the Federal Court ruled the method unlawful. But the government had not halted its broader debt recovery program, and was also denying cash advances to people whose “robodebts” had been frozen.

The government’s callous, punitive and financially cruel regime had continued in the face of the enormous social distress caused by the COVID-19 disaster. Newly-sacked or laid-off workers were forced to wait in massive queues outside the government’s Centrelink welfare offices to seek assistance.

They could not access the MyGov website to lodge claims because it crashed due to years of staff and resourcing cuts in Services Australia, the government agency in charge of the welfare payment system. Nor could people get through by phone.

After scenes reminiscent of the Great Depression of the 1930s, Ruston admitted last week that 123,000 people tried to access the website on March 24, the second day of the lengthy queues. Unable to get through to Centrelink by any other means, people had to queue dangerously, trying their best to uphold social distancing.

According to Australian Council for Social Services CEO Cassandra Goldie, the $555.6 million mentioned in the leaked cabinet submission represents just 70 percent of the $785 million that the government extracted via the robodebt system by August 2019.

The Labor Party’s shadow minister for government services, Bill Shorten, last week said staff working on robodebts should be redirected to help Services Australia handle the thousands of people applying for welfare due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Read on here

https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2020/04/06/welf-a06.html
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juliar
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Re: Temporary respite for Welfare cheats
Reply #1 - Apr 10th, 2020 at 10:08am
 
Lefties look the other way when WELFARE is mentioned.
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Re: Temporary respite for Welfare cheats
Reply #2 - Apr 11th, 2020 at 6:24pm
 
They're not cheats unless and until motive, means and opportunity have been proven beyond any reasonable doubt and intent has been proven as well.
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Re: Temporary respite for Welfare cheats
Reply #3 - Apr 11th, 2020 at 6:57pm
 
I've heard the Porn Industry in Fyshwick is operating on Glory Holes Only flicks.
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AIMLESS EXTENTION OF KNOWLEDGE HOWEVER, WHICH IS WHAT I THINK YOU REALLY MEAN BY THE TERM 'CURIOSITY', IS MERELY INEFFICIENCY. I AM DESIGNED TO AVOID INEFFICIENCY.
 
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Re: Temporary respite for Welfare cheats
Reply #4 - Apr 11th, 2020 at 7:10pm
 
Interesting article.

The Australian welfare system has always been needlessly cruel. Now it’s punishing half the country

Over the last 30 years or so, successive governments have done their best to one-up each other in making benefits ever more difficult to access. Every passing year seems to bring a new requirement: the diaries that need to be filled out to “prove” you’re looking for work, with their implication that those claiming benefits are liars; the demerit point system, whereby applicants are punished unilaterally and without right of appeal – and, in many cases, unfairly – at the discretion of a private service provider; the “mutual obligation” system with its ever-moving goalposts, questionable courses and pointless make-work.

How did we come to this? Like many other systems, the Australian welfare system has its roots in the post-war consensus and welfare state, and the understanding that the provision of state support is preferable to a situation where loss of employment can result in homelessness and destitution. And as in many other countries, as that consensus has crumbled under 40 years of free-market rhetoric and neoliberal economic policy, the support system has slowly devolved from a well-intentioned safety net into an ever-constricting noose.

The government is now presented with the challenge of wringing efficiency and helpfulness out of a system designed to provide neither

Under the particular combination of social and economic conservatism that took hold in Australia during the John Howard years (and in many other western democracies over the period that basically began with Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan), a need for state assistance is treated less as an economic crisis than it is as a moral failure on the claimant’s part.

For decades now, the unemployed have been among the favourite political punching bags of politicians and ideologues alike, perhaps because the very existence of both these groups seems to undermine the promise of free-market rhetoric: those who advocate for unrestrained capitalism do so on the basis that the market will inevitably elevate and enrich those who work hard enough. Those who remain poor and/or unemployed, therefore, must, by definition, not be trying hard enough.

Thus is born the mythology of the dole bludger: the idler who refuses to work, and in doing so, “steals” the tax dollars of those who do work hard and thus pay to subsidise his/her laziness. The simple act of asking for help is rendered in criminal terms (and, not coincidentally, in a manner strikingly similar to how asking for refuge is portrayed).

With this in mind, it’s perhaps no surprise that work-for-the-dole programs quite literally treat the unemployed in the same way as criminals. And in the same way that harsher prison sentences do little to reduce crime, the irony of punitive welfare programs is that, far from “encouraging” people back into work, they instead have the effect of locking people into the welfare system.

The government has hastened to make it clear that those seeking Covid-19-related help will be spared some of the worst depredations of the system. But what makes those who lost their jobs during a pandemic any more trustworthy than those who lost their job for any other reason? Why are the former spared the indignity of being treated as scrounging chancers? As with many of the other “necessary” social indignities that have been magically “set aside” for Covid-19, the fact these measures can be so easily discarded only goes to show how unnecessary they were in the first place.

Read more here
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Quoth the Raven "Nevermore"

Raven would rather ask questions that may never be answered, then accept answers which must never be questioned.
 
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Re: Temporary respite for Welfare cheats
Reply #5 - Apr 11th, 2020 at 9:10pm
 
Raven wrote on Apr 11th, 2020 at 7:10pm:
Interesting article.

The Australian welfare system has always been needlessly cruel. Now it’s punishing half the country

Over the last 30 years or so, successive governments have done their best to one-up each other in making benefits ever more difficult to access. Every passing year seems to bring a new requirement: the diaries that need to be filled out to “prove” you’re looking for work, with their implication that those claiming benefits are liars; the demerit point system, whereby applicants are punished unilaterally and without right of appeal – and, in many cases, unfairly – at the discretion of a private service provider; the “mutual obligation” system with its ever-moving goalposts, questionable courses and pointless make-work.

How did we come to this? Like many other systems, the Australian welfare system has its roots in the post-war consensus and welfare state, and the understanding that the provision of state support is preferable to a situation where loss of employment can result in homelessness and destitution. And as in many other countries, as that consensus has crumbled under 40 years of free-market rhetoric and neoliberal economic policy, the support system has slowly devolved from a well-intentioned safety net into an ever-constricting noose.

The government is now presented with the challenge of wringing efficiency and helpfulness out of a system designed to provide neither

Under the particular combination of social and economic conservatism that took hold in Australia during the John Howard years (and in many other western democracies over the period that basically began with Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan), a need for state assistance is treated less as an economic crisis than it is as a moral failure on the claimant’s part.

For decades now, the unemployed have been among the favourite political punching bags of politicians and ideologues alike, perhaps because the very existence of both these groups seems to undermine the promise of free-market rhetoric: those who advocate for unrestrained capitalism do so on the basis that the market will inevitably elevate and enrich those who work hard enough. Those who remain poor and/or unemployed, therefore, must, by definition, not be trying hard enough.

Thus is born the mythology of the dole bludger: the idler who refuses to work, and in doing so, “steals” the tax dollars of those who do work hard and thus pay to subsidise his/her laziness. The simple act of asking for help is rendered in criminal terms (and, not coincidentally, in a manner strikingly similar to how asking for refuge is portrayed).

With this in mind, it’s perhaps no surprise that work-for-the-dole programs quite literally treat the unemployed in the same way as criminals. And in the same way that harsher prison sentences do little to reduce crime, the irony of punitive welfare programs is that, far from “encouraging” people back into work, they instead have the effect of locking people into the welfare system.

The government has hastened to make it clear that those seeking Covid-19-related help will be spared some of the worst depredations of the system. But what makes those who lost their jobs during a pandemic any more trustworthy than those who lost their job for any other reason? Why are the former spared the indignity of being treated as scrounging chancers? As with many of the other “necessary” social indignities that have been magically “set aside” for Covid-19, the fact these measures can be so easily discarded only goes to show how unnecessary they were in the first place.

Read more here


Very good, Raven.
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“Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passion, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.”
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Re: Temporary respite for Welfare cheats
Reply #6 - Apr 11th, 2020 at 9:54pm
 
juliar wrote on Apr 10th, 2020 at 10:08am:
Lefties look the other way when WELFARE is mentioned.


The right have looked the other way on corporate theft for many decades.

We see chasing welfare debt suspended for 6 months but we know that chasing corporate and multinational debt is off the cards - forever.
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Raven
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Re: Temporary respite for Welfare cheats
Reply #7 - Apr 11th, 2020 at 10:57pm
 
One thing that has vexed Raven over the years....

Capitalism is (apparently) the best thing that has happened to humanity

But if capitalism is so great, why does it need to be bailed out  by socialism every ten or so years?
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Quoth the Raven "Nevermore"

Raven would rather ask questions that may never be answered, then accept answers which must never be questioned.
 
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Re: Temporary respite for Welfare cheats
Reply #8 - Apr 12th, 2020 at 1:58am
 
Raven wrote on Apr 11th, 2020 at 10:57pm:
One thing that has vexed Raven over the years....

Capitalism is (apparently) the best thing that has happened to humanity

But if capitalism is so great, why does it need to be bailed out  by socialism every ten or so years?



My god, son - you've advanced in leaps and bounds during your absence...

Unconstrained anything has never been the answer for humanity - the Robber Baron period of Capitalism Unbound proved that as regards Pure Capitalism (and market forces etc) beyond any possible doubt....so governments, despite their rhetoric and adherence to cardboard cutout concepts of social issues, have always managed to hold in reserve - a reserve of the ready for emergencies - trouble is - under our tax system, the ready comes from the pockets of those who actually work for a living and have no choice but to pay... it never comes from the capitalist ... they have every escape route and bolt hole - a bit like the Deep Nazis after WWII - to evade paying taxes.

You should all bow down and kiss the arses of Jo and Joe Bloggs who worked and work for a living for so long and don't have those bolt holes.....

There, My Lords - there is your funding!
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« Last Edit: Apr 12th, 2020 at 2:03am by Grappler Truth Teller Feller »  

“Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passion, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.”
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Raven
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Re: Temporary respite for Welfare cheats
Reply #9 - Apr 12th, 2020 at 2:32am
 
Grappler Truth Teller Feller wrote on Apr 12th, 2020 at 1:58am:
Raven wrote on Apr 11th, 2020 at 10:57pm:
One thing that has vexed Raven over the years....

Capitalism is (apparently) the best thing that has happened to humanity

But if capitalism is so great, why does it need to be bailed out  by socialism every ten or so years?



My god, son - you've advanced in leaps and bounds during your absence...

Unconstrained anything has never been the answer for humanity - the Robber Baron period of Capitalism Unbound proved that beyond any possible doubt....so governments, despite their rhetoric and adherence to cardboard cutout concepts of social issues, have always managed to hold in reserve - a reserve of the ready for emergencies - trouble is - under out tax system, the ready comes from the pockets of those who actually work for a living and have no choice but to pay... it never comes from the capitalist ... they have every escape route and bolt hole - a bit like the Deep Nazis after WWII - to evade paying taxes.

You should all bow down and kiss the arses of Jo and Joe Bloggs who worked and work for a living for so long and don't have those bolt holes.....

There, My Lords - there is your funding!


You are right , we should applaud Jo and Joe. Without them we would not be where we are today. Unfortunately the average Jo and Joe doesn’t even notice the “bolt holes” and that speaks volumes. Also history has shown it is mainly Jo and Joe who have an issue with welfare.  But Raven would argue that is mainly due to successively governments saturating our consciousness with the concept that welfare=bad.
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Quoth the Raven "Nevermore"

Raven would rather ask questions that may never be answered, then accept answers which must never be questioned.
 
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juliar
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Re: Temporary respite for Welfare cheats
Reply #10 - Apr 12th, 2020 at 2:14pm
 
The Lefties' Lament

Give us a handout
Give us a handout
Come on ScoMo
Give us a handout again.
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juliar
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Re: Temporary respite for Welfare cheats
Reply #11 - Apr 12th, 2020 at 4:14pm
 
Could this be the ultimate weapon to keep the Lefties and Greenies from "borrowing" from the taxpayers ?



Do We Need To Bring Back The Concept of An Australia Card?
By David Richards| 30 Mar 2020

...


Do we need an Australia Card and are those businesses who demand cash set to come unstuck as the Coronavirus takes hold?

As millions of Australians look for their first Government payment after being retrenched and business, is desperately looking at how they will survive there appears to be confusion as to how to pay people or fund business.

We need a process that allows disadvantaged people to get money quickly and a way for business to hold onto employees with tax payments set to be a key way forward for the Federal Government to determine which employees will be paid and how much.

Each quarter business lodges BAS payments with the tax office, this identifies salaries and how much is being paid to individuals.

If we had an Australian Card that had employee details such as bank account details, home address and tax file numbers all the employer would have to do is advise the Government that an employee had been laid off and payments could start straight away.

Centrelink queues have stretched around blocks in Australian cities this last week and all this would be avoided with an Australia Card system, there would be no dole queuing, no stress for individuals.

...

It would also sort out all those businesses that collect cash and don’t pay tax with those businesses and the employees who are paid cash only getting payments based on the percentage of salary lodged in a BAS report.

It would also identify individual businesses who operate in a cash economy.


Currently it’s being speculated that Australians who lose their jobs will be given a wage subsidy to guarantee a share of their income as the coronavirus crisis wipes out both their employer’s businesses and peoples job.

Currently the Morrison government is planning to pay workers a percentage of their wages and is examining ways to get employers to transfer the money to their staff, as an alternative to using the welfare system.

If we had an Australian Card the employer and the business would be easily identifiable and above all held accountable.


This program is expected to have a cap on the total income to be paid, while the percentage of income covered is yet to be decided.

Mr Morrison’s first stimulus measures have only offered workers the Jobseeker allowance, previously known as Newstart and worth $2,200 per month including a temporary doubling of the rate during the health and economic crisis.

The Financial Review claimed the move to a wage subsidy is a significant shift.

The idea of an Australia Card has been floating around for decades and the Coronavirus could be a real reason for putting it back on the political agenda.

First was raised as a concept at the national Tax Summit in 1985 convened by the then Federal Labor government led by Bob Hawke, it was proposed that the card be used to amalgamate other government identification systems and act against tax avoidance, and health and welfare fraud.

The government introduced legislation in the parliament in 1986, but it did not have a majority in the Senate and was repeatedly blocked by the opposition and minor parties. Due to his opposition to the card, ALP senator George Georges resigned from the party to sit as an independent in December 1986.

In response, Hawke asked the Governor-General Sir Ninian Stephen for a double dissolution, which was granted on 5 June 1987, followed by an election on 11 July.

The government was returned, but still without a majority in the Senate.

Nevertheless, the legislation was reintroduced, even though it was expected to be blocked in the Senate once more.

It was then that a retired public servant, Ewart Smith, noticed a flaw in the drafting of the legislation that nobody on either side had previously noticed.

Even if the bill had been passed in the joint sitting, certain regulations necessary for the functioning of the system could be overturned by the Senate alone.

Specifically, the bill contained clauses that imposed penalties on businesses that failed to require a person to produce their Australia Card, or authorized the freezing of bank account and social security payments for those who did not produce one.

It then became too hard and was dropped.

By having in place a unique identifier both business, Goverment and individuals would benefit.

https://www.channelnews.com.au/do-we-need-to-bring-back-the-concept-of-an-austra...
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« Last Edit: Apr 12th, 2020 at 5:27pm by juliar »  
 
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Re: Temporary respite for Welfare cheats
Reply #12 - Apr 12th, 2020 at 6:42pm
 
AuschtraliaKarte?

No way, Jose`!
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Re: Temporary respite for Welfare cheats
Reply #13 - Apr 12th, 2020 at 6:50pm
 
https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/zcj6y4j/revision/1

Work For the Dole (Howard's Way):-

"Public works and the National Labour Service (RAD)

Hitler’s first Economic Minster, Dr Hjalmar Schacht, expanded the public works schemes of the Weimar Republic and set up the National Labour Service (RAD).

RAD used unemployed men between the ages of 18 and 25 to build government-funded motorways (known in German as Autobahnen), hospitals, schools and other public buildings such as the 1936 Olympic Stadium, and to work as groundskeepers.

The men spent six months in camps, wore uniforms and received a small amount of pay to send back to their families.

RAD became compulsory for men in 1935. It was extended to women in 1939.

To create as many jobs as possible, manual labour was favoured over the use of machines.

RAD was beneficial to the Nazis because it provided them with cheap labour, reduced the numbers on the unemployment register, led to a network of motorways which could be used for the mobilisation of the army during the war and kept young people occupied."

Industrial Relations:-

"Workers lost their right to negotiate their wages and improvements in their working conditions.

They could not change their job without permission. The maximum working hours per week increased from 60 to 72.

Workers could be in danger of being unfairly treated by employers for questioning their working conditions. The number of serious industrial accidents increased. Industrial-related illnesses went up 150%.

Living conditions in National Labour Service (RAD) camps were poor.

Massive cuts in welfare spending affected lots of people.

Many farmers left their land due to poverty (in spite of subsidies, guaranteed prices and tax cuts).

Small businesses suffered a lot. Rules on opening and running small businesses were tightened, which resulted in 20 per cent of them closing. They could not compete with the monopolies and cartels formed by big businesses."

Workers had a card the specified what their occupation was and by whom they were employed... they could do nothing without permission.... Der AuschtraliaKarte....
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“Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passion, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.”
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juliar
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Re: Temporary respite for Welfare cheats
Reply #14 - Apr 13th, 2020 at 10:20am
 
Does one detect fear of losing something ?
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