Australia —
Thousands of disabled welfare recipients will get $100
each fortnight to help pay for taxis to job interviews
and work.
Under budget plans to revamp the
welfare system, to be unveiled on Tuesday, the Government
has agreed to boost transport subsidies to lure more
people into work.
Despite hints of a major welfare
system shake-up, the final changes are more
modest.
Government sources said the
existing 700,000 disability-support pensioners had been
exempted from tough new work tests.
Only new applicants for disability
payments would be forced to look for a job - and be paid
a lower benefit while they looked - if they could work 15
hours or more a week. Existing pensioners would remain
exempt from job search requirements if they could not
work at least 30 hours a week.
Treasurer Peter Costello and Prime
Minister John Howard met yesterday to finetune details of
the welfare-to-work policies, including several
outstanding decisions on work requirements for
sole-parent pensioners.
Under proposals put to cabinet in
recent months, single parents would be forced to look for
a job once their youngest child started primary
school.
Australian
Federation of Disability
Organisations chief
executive Maryanne Diamond said the transport subsidy
boost could make it affordable for some disabled people
to get to job interviews.
"Because people with disabilities
have very limited incomes, they often live a long way
from where jobs are, in cheaper areas, and may not have
public transport," she said. And a lot of people said the
cost of a taxi to and from work was more than they
earned.
