I have been a DSP recipient for around 2 years. At the age of 31, I had not worked for most of my life. Apart from a history of depression, and being forced to leave home at 18 due to a hostile home environment [unbeknownst to those who drove past the manicured lawns and irrigated gardens surrounding our then 40 square home]. I was unable to obtain sustainable, decently paid long-term employment using any of my skills for most of my adult life and in that my sexual orientation and lifestyle was a decent factor. This was the forerunner to a long battle with depression I'm only partly recovered from now. As the eldest child of a rich merchant family I had to contend with the humiliation of my sole other sibling, a heterosexual brother 4 years my junior getting the world on a silver platter while I lived in crisis accommodation, share houses where I got ripped off, the floor of a friends bedroom [size 4x3m] and at various times having to contemplate the prospect of wandering out into the perilous nocturnal world in order to supplement my under-the-poverty-line income. I visited Melbourne recently, my first flight since I was with my family over 15 or more years ago--however with my meager funds wiped out, there was time spent in a parking lot between Ackland and Barkly St of a certain bayside suburb while most other folks were in bed.

As for the performance of job agencies, I was unable to find one willing to try hard enough to help. So those who criticize the DSP and recipients, don't you dare.....come out of your homes and take a look at how other people live. The truth will probably shock you. Certainly at 16, I could not have imagined the existence of places like the Belford Street West Carpark St Kilda, though my city of residence, Sydney is much more fast-paced.