Well David JS,the Howard Govt have spent more on Social Security than labor could have imagined their wildest dreams,simply because of lower interest rates and the GST which Labor opposed.The NSW Govt did not until recently go into debt because they did not spend any money on infrastructure.Hey presto, we went into infrastructure debt instead.
What did the NSW Govt.do with all the money?They grew the bureauracy and wasted it on advertising to tell us how good they were,consultants to find out what they already knew,and their own inefficient bull dust.I think also they spent money on the olympics that did not show up in the official olympic expenditure.

re Arjay's statistic of the 250,000 single parents receiving benefits: damn good thing there were allegedly 100,000 terminations every year for the past 5 years or that statistic would read '750,000 single abandoned women receiving benefits'.

Brownie ,mount a decent arguement instead of a one line irrelevant snipe.You disappointment me.

NOT ARGUING WITH:Arjay, Monday, February 21, 2005 11:43:33 PM POST,
merely commenting on the statistic of 250,000.
I agree with Andre McCallum's initial argument that recipients of DSP do not need any more hurdles to jump thanks Centrelink, BUT I do think that there IS plenty of SUPPORT for DSPs to FIND work, there just is not sufficient (part time, non-physical) work to be found.

As a person currently applying for the DSP, I'm fascinated by some of the opinions expressed here.

The DSP aplication process is more invasive, and required me to fill out more duplicated paperwork, than either the 'Newstart' or 'Austudy' payments. The questions that were *not* asked raise some interesting questions about the assumptions made by Centrelink about who applies for the DSP and why.

The process is not easy, and is heavily weighted towards *denying* rather than approving applications. And I can expect it to take take months.

My purpose? To get some *assistance* from Centrelink: access to services to assist me in the workplace - assistance currently denied to me for being 'on the *wrong* payment' ...

to RJ - I was not looking for your approval.
to maelorin - People With Jobs think that Centrelink justs hands it out to we DSPs, and the PWJs also think it is enough to live on. Nobody would do this from free choice. My application for a disabled parking place says 'only apply if you require mechanical assistance to walk'. Now I am so crippled with arthritis that I could not get in or out of a 4WD, and yet I see people with these vehicles with the permit on their windscreens and I just don't get it. As Malcolm rminded us all Life was not MEANT to be EASY. good luck.