Yabby; Lots of people in the former East Germany simply had the industrial base pulled from under them when a united Germany pulled away from trade with the USSR. At the time we had people in the Australian Left saying they were better off on West German welfare. But now there are some on the German Right who expect former East Germans to pick up all the poorly-paid, unksilled and insecure jobs; And a good many people are feeling very disillusioned...

re: Australia/Newstart - Onernous active labour market policies already existed; Now they are more severe; The least we could do would be to raise Newstart payments accordingly; Maybe by $50/week for normal recipients; $100/week for those actively engaged in 'work for the dole' programs...

There is your problem right there Tristan, ie attitude.

Life is not a straight line. People sitting around feeling sorry
for themselves, because the perfect job with the great conditions
is not on offer, are doing themselves a disservice.

I worked some crappy jobs, for crappy pay. But with every job,
I learned something. I met new people. I saw new ways of doing things.
I worked with machines that I did not understand before. I increased
my skills. I increased my social network. That opened new doors,
new ideas, new experience, its all a big learning trip.

The woman who founded Carman's, took a job as a student, mixing
up muesli. Hardly a glamour job. But she learned on the job.
As a housewife she went on to found Carman's Muesli. Today its on
the shelves at Coles. I am one of her customers.

So people have a choice. Change their attitude to life and see
it as one big learning trip, going from strength to strength, or
sit around feeling sorry for themselves and claiming that the system
is unfair.

My advice. Take the crappy job, you can always quit later. You don't
know where or what it will lead to, but its better then feeling sorry
for yourself.

Not a poor little thing at all Yabby - that is your perception. Relaying my own experience was to demonstrate what many disabled people who don't meet certain criteria have to work around. Why do you have to make these discussions so personal or diminish experiences different from yours as somehow lacking.

Clearly I did manage and there are many more people much worse off than I who will not ever get back into the workforce for no fault of their own. Under Howard there was some irony in the fact that wheelchair bound people had to get special taxis to work at what were invariably part-time jobs and much of their wages went on transport to and from work, they lost some other community supports because they were now 'employed', all in all it led to conditions worse than when reliant on the DSP. Thankfully some of these unforseen anomalies were addressed reasonably quickly, but this is how out of touch some of these decision makers are.

The fact is most disabled people are willing to undertake whatever jobs they find that fit their situation and they are not always ideal jobs but like you say, every job is an opportunity to learn and find out new things about yourself.

I have read with interest all the points both for and against. Some I agree with and some I do not. I have been a worker for most of my life and have always paid taxes. I am now 61 years of age and yes I am currently unemployed and recieve government benefits. I receive a total of $474.90 a fortnight to which my mortgage takes $451.30 a fortnight this leaves me the grand total of $23.60 a fortnight to live on, so I often go without food for days at a time. I want and need to work and every day I apply for positions of employment. But to date since being made redundant last October have had no success. I have attended seminars for mature unemployed and recently completed a course certificate 2 in security. I have removed my D.O.B. ang age from my recume as it deters prospective employers who may consider I am to old. My normal field of employment is in the transport industry as a H.R.truck driver. A point I find annoying and irritating is seldom any response to the applications of employement positions i have applied for. I do not drink alcahole or use drugs. Yes there are some recipients who rort the system and they would be in a minority. The majority of recipients want to work, but the jobs are not out there, and it is getting worse as more companies relocate off shore.

Then there are some businesses who are paid a subsidy from the Government to employ long term unemployed. One company is in Pakenham Victoria. The Government subsidises the wages for up to 3 months and at the end of the wage susidy for those employees they are dismissed and a new batch come in on the subsidy. I doubt if they are the only company in Australia using and rorting the system.
Televisions A Current Affair recently ran an article on a street of residents who all receive Government benefits. A lot of rhetroric has since been used against those residents labeling them as dole and welfare bludgers. Unfortunately many of the people or should I say SHEEPLE in Australia have agreed with the rhetoric used in the media to assist the Government to convince the people that most recipients of government welfare are bludging on the tax payers and by doing this makes it easier to justify the hard core stance they are using to victimise those people.
I could add a lot more but will wait and see if there are any responses constructive or negative.
Cheers

b) Take a look at who is not employing people at risk of long term disadvantage, and make them.

First step - look at the public service. What efforts have they made to employ the long term unemployed, single mums and the disabled?

Correct Naomi - one further point, the Government are not paying for Security Clearances for Admin Contractors in the -12 month bracket any longer, according to a couple of my workmates.

The government jobs exist in most states for Contractors, casuals and temporary staff, however, the majority are not being filled (since Labor came to power).

Agencies are missing out on the business, employees across the country are missing out on being employed, and the government departments are not having positions filled.

How are Australians able to be employed when 'Employers/Government and Businesses are requesting Secret and Highly Protected Clearances up front in an advertisement, prior to being granted an interview?

Red tape and barriers set up by Government legislation turning away potential employees before submitting an application for positions.

Those casual, part-time and temporary contracts employ thousands of Australians, impacting upon family units to pay rent, mortgages, food and utilities. Yet, the Government changed Legislation a couple of years ago despite Criminal checks, referees and signed oaths by employees adhering to Business and Government codes of conduct.

Trying to get a young relative into a casual government job without a security clearance being paid for is ridiculous and a total waste of time.