Australia —
FEDERAL Government plans to streamline a range of welfare
payments into a single working age payment appeared to be
based solely on cost cutting, Labor said today.
The reported plans signalled a
belated and recycled response to the challenge of
increasing workforce participation, Opposition
spokeswoman for workforce participation Penny Wong
said.
A report in The Australian
newspaper today said Workplace Relations Minister Kevin
Andrews would introduce to cabinet early next year a
discussion paper outlining options to introduce a single
welfare payment and simplify the system of
payments.
Senator Wong said a leaked
Centrelink report last month indicated cost cutting was
the government's primary motive for the streamlined
payment.
“We are supportive of reform
that assists and encourages people to move from welfare
to work,” she said.
“What appears to have been
announced is a pretty belated and recycled response to
the challenge of increasing workforce
participation.
“The single payment option has
been around for quite a number of years.
“Our real concern is that the
government is focused more on cost cutting than on
providing the real support and assistance that is needed
for people to move from welfare to work.
“If cost cutting is the only
agenda, it's going to cause problems.”
Senator Wong said the newspaper
report about stripping childcare entitlements from the
unemployed and low-income single mothers was hard to
understand.
“That is one of the more
bizarre proposals that's mooted in the paper,” she
said.
“The sort of childcare support
that is identified there as being under threat is
childcare support for parents who are unemployed which is
available for those people when they study, look for work
or volunteer in order to increase their
skills.
“If you're serious about
increasing workforce participation, it seems strange that
you'd remove one of the supports that encouraged
that.”
