"It is often accessed through what is considered socially unacceptable means - food relief, food vouchers, soup kitchens and the like."

I think that Christian social services need to look at themselves and their own attitudes towards those who are seeking material aid. The attitude that "food relief, vouchers, soup kitchen's and the like, are socially unacceptable means of accessing aid" is often a view held by volunteers and staff in the organisations providing the aid. Blaming the victim mentalities; envy of the poor (i.e the belief that the recipients of aid are lucky to have gotten away with getting something for nothing); and unashamed anger towards the poor (treating them as pests and nuisances who are a burden to be endured)are beliefs expressed by the very people who are supposed to be providing the help.

Often these so called charity organisations impose administrative systems which encourage staff to develop hostile attitudes towards their clients - such as scrutinising concession cards and monitoring individuals who seek aid by developing performance related case files, trading the provision of food for information (as is often perceived by individuals seeking assistance that are "case managed") and insisting that staff account for their material distribution decisions (in terms which can only be interpreted as identification of the "deserving and un deserving") HOW aid is provided is often more important than WHY and to WHOM. The methods and manner of relief provision can determine the difference between wether an individual in need ever comes back again and wether they will ever need to come back again

The image of the Aussie Battler still looms large among many older Australians. Many remember childhoods in simpler times and parents who worked hard to provide basics. To such people the Welfare system is anathema and recipients are designated as bludgers, no-hopers, lazy, immoral and shiftless, while single mothers are either calculating schemers or products of the demonised feminist movement who are getting their just deserts. In all cases these people are seen to have brought their troubles upon themselves and suggestions for their betterment are bandied around with all the moral aggrandizement of sanctimonious ignorance.

Thousands of those living in poverty in Australia are thus denigrated and disregarded and details of their lives, being too uncomfortable to contemplate, are met with defensive invective and sermonising.

It is really uncomfortable to contemplate that many of us do in fact go hungry and suffer from the effects of malnutrition. But there are other unpleasant facts of poverty as well: when each cent is accounted for before it is spent an irregular menstrual cycle (often brought about through inadequate food and stress) can upset the weeks budget: tampons or milk for the kids? Kids coming home from school with nits is a disaster when treatments are not subsidised on medicare and can use up the entire food budget for a week. A bright kid chosen to take part in a competition and "only" needing fares can mean a parent going without food literally for days. A hole in a pair of shoes or a growth spurt can lead to days off school and more hunger.

Unfortunately the poor do not have a voice in Australia, and those individuals who do speak out are very easy to discredit with absurd counter-waffle from the moral majority.

" Some still question whether poverty in Australia is a serious issue."

It's amazing that anyone believes there is any real poverty in Australia - compared with real poverty in other countries.
"Relative poverty" should be totally ignored as a concept in Australia. If some Australians don't have the basic needs, it is their fault. Not having everything rich people have is NOT poverty. Have a look at starving kids in Africa. That's poverty!

If there is no standard method of measuring poverty in Australia (the authors claim, although academics in the past have put forward standards that I understood were being used) then it is because such a standard is not necessary where safety nets protect anyone who needs them and applies for them - if people want to live on the streets and scrounge and beg rather than embracing the system, they can't be helped or included in any discussion on poverty.

Who says a "significant proportion of people in Australia do not have access to to adequate food"? Ah, sorry. The 119 "clients" surveyed. Do the authors seriously believe these people? Did they ask them to look into their budgeting methods to see why they might not have had enough to eat? Unlikely! Budgeting is a dirty word among people who would rather blame governments and "rich" people for their problems.

I know the likes of these authors have to talk nonsense to justify their existence in useless, non-productive jobs. But, they should be aware that few, apart from left-wing agitators and bleeding heart liberals, take the idea of genuine poverty in Australia seriously.

There will always be no-hopers in society irrespective of how much money or practical help is wasted on them

Your right

Due to its the upper class that has the only right to represent you in government.

Yes its stu from The Australian Peoples Party a low to middle class person trying to buck the system.

The upper class dictating to us in all walks of life and why because we let them well enough is enough.

it time to stand or
its time for all you wingers to sh#t up

www.tapp.org.au

Here is the transcript of an archived ABC TV program, Sunday- Spectrum, of 23 Februrary 2003:

http://www.abc.net.au/sundayspectrum/s793121.htm

It seems to resonate with me.

If you have a modest mortgage say $150,000 to put a roof over your head, pay utilities, pay rates, transport yourself, clothe and clean yourself and your house you need about $550 net per week.

If this is all you earn you have to find savings to feed yourself. If you have dependants these costs all go up (acknowledging you will get some form of income support).

So it is easy to see how people go hungry when unforseen events happen, but with easy credit those car repairs can go on the credit card until its maxed out. Then you bank will tell you you are a good customer and increase your limit making it even harder to buy food.

Not an extreme example, I can think of many a worse case than this.

Leigh what planet are you living on. It must be blame the victim ville.

If people can't afford to eat adequately in Australia we need to understand why. I think I could manage quite adequately, though without any frills, to live on the lowest of government allowances. I need to exclude exceptional cases where some medical or other cost swamps the budget, or where poor judgement has incurred huge repayment bills. But for people to live routinely with inadequate money for food, if that be the case as the authors assert, strikes me as unimaginable. We need to know more. Do more investigation. What are the circumstances that reduce people to living on less than adequate diet? The answers could be to increase benefits, or education, or budgeting skills, or what? So I would like the authors to do more inquiry and come up with some solutions.

"I think I could manage quite adequately, though without any frills, to live on the lowest of government allowances"

Newstart $212.15 per week, To rent a room in a shared house $150 plus expenses of about $40.

$22.50 per week left, you need a phone to look for jobs $10 a week. You need to get to the job network office and centrelink another $10 a week.(If you have public transport) $2.50 left.

Things you need to find a job, toothpaste, soap, hair cuts, clothes etc etc. about $30 per week. -$27.50 left.

-$4 left to to feed yourself a day.

Bread $2.50, Sausages $4.50 for 6, so a sausage sandwich for lunch leaves you -$6.50 a day. Breakfast, quick oats at about 50c a serve leaves you -$7.00 for dinner.

Even with no frills I am sure you get my point.

No car, no computer, no internet, no pay TV, no assets. No life.

The real point is not about welfare recipients it is about the working poor who are often worse off.

Finally - good on ya ruawake - moving out of the abstract and into the detail realities. Everyone is brave when it come to ideas and principles but try feeding yourself on Newstart- if you do not have a family willing to help out!

i am a single parent.
35 years old.
both my parents are deceased.
i live in government housing.
i have one child and will not have another unless i become married.
i am not an alcoholic a gambler or a drug addict.
in the past 6 years i have worked on a part-time basis.
i am currently unemployed.
i am in debt.
i own two pairs of shoes, sandals and sneakers.
for dinner tonight my child and i had canned spaghetti.
i often have to remind my child to not use too much bread, milk, cereal because when its gone, thats it.
i often go without meals. we do not eat enough red meat as i simply cannot afford it.
i would like to obtain a qualification in horticulture but cannot raise the $1000 - nor source funding for it.
i contemplate suicide. i know that things could always be worse but this is a source of fear, not comfort.
how much worse would it have to be before i break from the stress and pressure of trying to survive. my child and i are socially isolated because of our financial situation. what socio-economic bracket do i fit into?
to anyone who thinks that centrelink recipients are all taxpayer funded parasites i say - walk a mile in my shoes and even if you steal them because you think i owe you something i would still have 1 pair left.

There are few circumstances that wrench my heart more than the thought of children going hungry. Even so, it is instructive to stand near a supermarket checkout and note the precooked rubbish that many low income families buy when they do have money for food, and the corresponding dearth of fresh fruit and vegetables. Also, the tobacco booth is especially busy on pension day. At the risk of being accused of sententiousness, there is no viable substitute for bugeting, and prioritising fresh food which is in general cheaper than processed breakfast cereals, frozen pies, coke (in ever larger bottles) and potato crisps.

Critical to Australia's future is the need to take action and understand that there is a dire need to consider "New Indicators of Disadvantage".

We are a developed nation going backwards.

We are "invisible" statistics. Those which could otherwise help to problem solve.

This denial of the truth is disempowering local community, and will serverely contribute to problems we face in coming years as the baby boomers draw on "basic" needs in numbers never experienced by our system before.

How will we, as a nation of Aussie innovators cope?

For this reason I am about to reveal my own circumstance. It is humiliating. As a proud and highly capable woman, with others, I wish to expose how this situation can deprive one of esteem, health, and or effectiveness.

It is a window into welfare and how the treatment can disable and seriously pacify whole sections of our community where mutual obligation is abused by the whole of governance administrations involved.

Like others, my own case study reaffirms how people on a low wage minimum wage, on welfare and or disability have NO rights.

This is because we don't have the legal council necessary to protect ourselves from adversities.

We cannot protect our rights because we appear to have have none.

This is to show how many of us suffer under a the present system, inside a Western developed country.

a) The welfare laws (about a dozen Acts of Parliament) have been set up for us, accept we can't access them as we can't afford the costs of legal council.

b) Even the Tenancy Rights Acts are unaccessible to the impoverished especially when dealing with slum landlords. (See 25 issues in Mental Health)

The Welfare, Disability, Worker's Compensation Acts are unaccessible due to lack of legal council.

The Victim's Rights and Human Rights clauses inside policies are inaccessible due to lack of their legal inclusiveness

These stories are under-reported because of fear, stigma and public misunderstanding.

Worse is the run around the victim gets, especially when dealing with several government departments all at once.

See Below;

Cut Off the Dole Five Times Since Christmas and then fraught (as a Single Woman) by the Centerlink’s Marriage Investigators.

You might recall I reported being cut off and left virtually homeless during Christmas.

http://forum.onlineopinion.com.au/thread.asp?article=5318#66191

In total:

I have been cut of the dole eight times in less than a year through no fault of my own.

Three times last year during two cyclones (2006) and severely harassed by the Marriage Investors then and; reported to the local Building inspector on that occasion as well.

Frankly I am suspicious. The last time I was investigated by the Marriage Investors it was revealed that they were acting from a (so called anonymous) “tip-off” from inside my own community.

Anonymous?

How can this be allowed?

What is a person as skilled, intelligent and innovative as myself doing on the DOLE you might ask?

Due to the social-economic and political problems we have in this isolated rural region, I have been out spoken on issues of sustainable development. After not being able to find work, I formed a Candoo (mini) NGO. Given we have no “resource centre” I advocate and provide support services to others in difficulty. I write letters, submissions and campaign on local employment, health and crime prevention. Issues of self-determination through self-governance. I believe strongly in building capacity through civic engagement.

Regardless of how hard I try, I am ridiculed by many local-and regional officials, and nullified by a lack of government response, everywhere.

Politically I have been up against a regional and local mainstream silo. Somehow it could be I have been blacklisted by a small closed network who want me disempowered. See Altmann’s 2004 election letters.

To call-centres, I have reported to Centrelink, , the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations (DEWR), JobNet and JobFind and my local Council.

This is how poverty works in regional areas, where small populations divide on issues of disadvantage.

We lack important legal-political-cultural resources in all areas of administrative governance.

At ground level we lack a socio-economic specific kind of community infrastructure.

http://www.miacat.com
.

Good idea. Poverty is often caused by unpopular ideas and not just gambling, drinking, or eating problems.
To have the socio-economic thing is unrealistic until more people consider what really passes for respectability. 'Work', consume, show off, who cares what it is doing to the planet. Times are now changing, More people are realising that we need to sustain the only living planet in the known universe. Be patient.

Two of the most strident voices against dole bludgers that I know are women whose husbands have spent 15+ years on invalid pensions. I suspect that the loudest slaggers of dole bludgers are often in receipt of government welfare payments, like invalid pension, old age pension.

When I compare 2 families I know in receipt of welfare payments, both families have 1 kid on austudy, in one family mum works, dad is on invalid pension, the mortgage increases everytime a car needs to be replaced, the kids are at a private K12 school on part fees - grandparents give $3000 per annum, and I think they rarely [sometimes] go hungry.

I contrast that with another family that rents ministry housing, single mum driving a $800 bomb, when it goes. Mum completed a nursing qualification but was unable to secure more than 5 shifts a fortnight before she blew her back out lifting a patient. There is clearly no food in the house every second week as the kid cruises over on a vague begging expedition. I have seen a Friday night meal of a humungous $2 tray of chips slathered in gravy. The only meals that I think I could prepare for less money are burghul or porridge.

I think people forget that everyone has to have a mobile phone, you can't get work if you can't be contacted by phone and there is an increase in employers SMSing shift availability and employee messages to a phone list.

There are some very good comments there and my heart goes out to common i understand been there,

also fresh food you may not have noticed how fresh food really is, or where it comes from or how long it is in storage so really frozen is fresh, when you compare to the fresh ideas people.

Bread best before
fruit and veg fresh but dont worry its been in store for 12 months.

I remember fresh was baked today
Picked yesterday.

It has been said that people of our class the middle and lower class have no rights to be in politics well this would explain why i am fighting and why the divide between upper and middle and lower class is getting wider.
Upper class in government, who reaps the rewards us the middle and lower class no, not by statistics, and what is being said.

So members and candidates wanted for The Australian Peoples Party.

you up for a fight
or ready to fizzle out and accept servatude.

www.tapp.org.au

it would seem that even after writing about my situation, but not in detail, there still appear to be those who continue to generalise centrelink recipients as uneducated dolts who buy processed food and spend the majority of their money on cigarettes.
(yes GYM FISH, i mean you) peppering your post with large words wont serve to confuse the likes of me either, as i can read and know how to use a dictionary. i probably have more resilience and inner strength in my big toe than most people possess overall. i am not posting here to garner sympathy for myself. what reason do i have to look back upon my education as worthwhile when the system is keeping me at a designated level (you may have this much, but no more) and not allowing me to contribute to society, thereby improving my general well-being. my annual income is $12,000. chump change for some im sure.

Common, I am not unsympathetic. You are the reason that we have a welfare system, and why it should be more generous to those that are truly in need.

Food vouchers and the like help to ensure that enough substance is provided, rather than having money spent on the unnecesaries. Common, it is not an insult to you at all, but I have lived in towns that are generally very poor and pension day sees a dash for the pub, the general store (for smokes) and the pokies. I dont have anything against these things in general (I dont mind a drink now and then, and I usually put $5/month into the pokies just for fun), just that they should be allowed to take priority. I know they do though - I live with an addict (to the legal drugs). There is no easy answer to this dilemma though.

As far as the $2 meal - try bacon and veggie fritters... a bit of flour, 100g bacon, egg, milk to mix and a grated carrot and zuccini will feed 4 for around $2-3 total. As well as being cheap, it provides protein, iron, and a good range of vitamins including A, B's C and D.

One of the big dilemma's is for working families that earn little, as there are big restrictions on time, which preclude a number of money saving activities.

Country Gal

I think your $2-3 for bacon veggie fritter is a bit low, I just checked at my local Woolies. I only added 10 cents for flour and milk, (but of course you can’t buy a bit of milk or flour). I limited the costs to one carrot and one zucchini.

Your fritter would cost about $3.50 and would result in an 85 gram “meal” each, for four.

The price of your fritter is about $10 a kilo. Of course if you could buy in bulk it would be much cheaper, but that is the problem.

May I suggest rice at about $1.30 a kilo as a staple food, Chicken at about $4.70 a kilo, frozen veg at about $3.75 a kilo. (no frills of course)

Bacon at $11 a kilo or more is just not an option.

This is reality for too many.

Thank you Ruawake for responding to my queries with very concrete information about the difficulties of living on a Newstart allowance of 212.50 a week. I had no idea that to rent a room in a shared house, plus expenses, would absorb 190.00 or so of this amount - leaving precious little to survive on. When I migrated to Oz, circa 1953, accommodation in Sydney was as scarce as hen's teeth. But, for 3 pounds a week, from my nett of tax 12 pounds a week of basic wage plus a bit for effort, I was actually able to save money for an eventual stake in real estate. I spent merely 25% of my income on accommodation, albeit very basic, just one very small room and shared shower and cooking room with a half dozen others. A major problem seems to be with the cost of accommodation. Why is this so?

What's this bickering on about cents and dimes doing here?

SOME PEOPLE IN AUSTRALIA DO NOT HAVE ENOUGH TO EAT. Did you hear?

I can repeat, if you want:

SOME PEOPLE IN AUSTRALIA DO NOT HAVE ENOUGH TO EAT.

Doesn't matter why this is happening, the fact that it's happening should horrify us all.
And Leigh, please, get real: a hungry human being is a hungry human being, in Australia or in Africa. The difference is: here in Australia a great proportion of us is dying of over consumption. Yet we see nothing wrong in letting our immediate neighbours go hungry.
Shame on all of us.

Equally shameful is our readiness to accept that anyone should depend on charity to survive. With a booming economy and record budget supluses, how can we tolerate that some of us need to beg for survival? It's a scandal.

Irrespective of the circumstances that led these people to being in need, there's enough money in this country to give everyone their dignity (not to mention their purchasing power, so precious to our own wealth!).

We are all human beings, and we might all be hungry one day.

Citizen K, we are simply pointing out how cheap food can be.

Runawake, yes you obviously cant buy 1 cup flour, I am assuming that you could buy a kilo for around $1 (no frills of course), which puts the cup at about $0.25. Bacon - dont buy prechopped stuff, buy when on special - about $8/kilo. Look, I make these things myself every couple of weeks.

Common mentioned canned spaghetti for dinner - wouldnt cheap fresh spaghetti be cheaper? Stir through some chopped tomato and a bit of shredded chicken. Another cheap meal. Rice is a good filling base - lucky we grow it so well in Australia!

Mothers, use cloth nappies on your babies. I did until my toddler was 14 months (and I was working at the time, so imagine the washing load with that). Water and napisan are much cheaper than buying disposables (even the cheap onse).

There are lots of little ways to get by.

An old lady (93) that I did a tax return for a couple of years ago was quite surprised to find that her income for the year was about $13500. Her response? "Goodness me that's a lot of money, I dont know where it all goes to".

Dear common
I am glad to hear that big words don't frighten or confuse you - even so you seem to have got the wrong end of the stick as far as my remarks are concerned. I have not said, nor do I believe, that people on welfare are intellectually inferior to those who are not on welfare, nor have I said or implied that welfare recipients spend all their money on junk food, alcohol, and tobacco, although I would state that many people do across all sections of the community, welfare recipients included. As to my (alleged) claims as to the spending habits of many welfare recipients, I suggest that you do as I did, and simply observe supermarket activity.
As a further point, I am an age pensioner, and during my working life was a welfare recipient for three seperate periods - re-entering the full time workforce on two occasions, each time after achieving mature age status.
I sympathise with your stated position - however may I suggest that you put aside the 'poor me' mind-set and come up with a plan to exricate yourself from the poverty trap that you seem to wallow in - perhaps you should consult some 'users of big words' who have been trained to help and are available to assist.

Two years ago my family and I learned the hard way about our social 'security' system

Four years ago, my husband and I decided to improve our earning capacities by doing part time study while working. We had had a succesful small business before that, which went belly up due to an onflow effect. I won't go into that now.

Then two years ago my husband had a serious accident.

We would be entitled to our wonderful welfare I hear you say?
No. First we had to use up our savings. We should have bought a plasma TV, gone on holidays which we had deprived ourselves of, gone to the pokies every week, anything but have savings.

After going back to zero, we had to fill out a confusing number of forms. I think they know everything about us except the number of knickers I own. For instance, we had to give an estimate what we could get for our household goods if we sold it.

I got another job working parttime. $17.50/hr 20hrs/wk. My husband still needed a lot of assistance. Financially we didn't improve from being on welfare. My husband then enquired about Austudy to retrain (he is physically disabled), we were informed we would go backwards.

I don't know where all the other bright sparks live who think that low income people all rush to the pub on pension day (maybe that is the only respite and fun that is remotedly affordable) or buy junk food (which is much cheaper than fresh fruit and vegetables).

Have any of you had to pay rent lately on a net income of $500/wk? Anybody paid rent for anything in a city for less than $280/wk? Then of course, you don't know how long you will be able to stay there. Do you know how much it costs to move? Hopefully you won't need to find new schools with different uniforms.

The left over money has to pay for EVERYTHING else. Is our story unique? No. Making ends meet is for many getting harder each year.

Yes Yvonne I have been there when partner became severely disabled. The welfare system is designed to give to the DESERVING poor. I couldn't cope with being judged by cretins with rather large chips on their shoulders but they have the power to process your claim or deny it. Its a rather confronting place to be, my heart goes out to you and Common.

I have had a chequered employment history over the last decade and in previous years I have been able to live in frugal comfort on $200 a week, no rent, broadband or car payments but in recent years I can't stick to a $200 week budget.

CountryGal if you had any dealings with the poor you would notice that their preference is for cake mixes rather than raw ingredients because its cheaper - less wastage.

GYM-FISH, this message below is from an interested party who contacted me, and asked me to paste this view, from Canada.

That junk food is bought because $207.00 (Canadian-the most possible) for a month can NOT buy the fruit and vegies unless we go without such foodstuffs for days.

Secondarily - How dare anyone blame tobacco.

Obviously when there is insufficient for both food and shelter discounting the toilet paper, transportation and hygienic cleaners - then people will take out their distressing duress against themselves - i.e. feel the choke physically (tobacco), as well as intellectually, emotionally, and spirituality--not to mention that a malnourished diet involving toxic processed foods spanning one meal/day and always otherwise hungry (regardless of age and health and work/educational/training potential to alter one's status) generates a laissez-faire attitude about one's health and everything else about oneself and one's community.

Over and above this - pension day - has nothing to do with welfare, which functions on a mandatory employment, totalitarian regimen (ss). You're confused with disability funding.

On welfare the punishment for lack of compliance/submission to self-harm is curtailment of subsidy. Why do you prefer to believe that lack of compliance is the victim's criminality, rather than dissent against the criminally enfeebled administering a brutal system?

Your statement is the product of ingrained, bigoted, government-sponsored propaganda inciting irrational callous indifference, fear, hate and denial against one group, which will expand to include your group tomorrow.

What goes around comes around - You're next!

It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends on his not understanding it.

See Upton Sinclair http://www.veoh.com/channels/selfdetermination
.

Dear miacat
My first response upon reading the load of ranting rubbish submitted under your name was to laugh out loud - then it occured to me that this Canadian amateur sociologist/psychologist and (no doubt) part time political activist meant the piece to be taken seriously. I do not propose to answer the piece in any detail -there are far too many nonsensical and irrational statements to warrant a studied response. I would however simply say that if you, and 'common', and indeed any of the many welfare recipients out there who adopt the 'poor me' mind set are influenced by the garbage put forward by our mysterious Canadian correpondant then there is little hope of ever climbing out of the poverty trap, and - even worse - those attitudes will be passed on to your children so that in turn they too will wallow in poverty and self pity. I do not propose to continue with postings to this site. I have said what I wanted to say and will leave the field to the many who will follow the Canadian with even more outrageous nonsense. Just one final comment to 'common' and others who share her position and her attitude - has it occured to you that in most countries in the world you (and your children) would be dead from starvation and disease or physical violence long before now? Australian society is generous and compassionate, and above all safe. Compared to most other places Australia is a paradise on earth. Why do you think that thousands upon thousands of people from all over the world are trying to get here? We have freedom, a host of free government services, across the board opportunity, and a guaranteed basic standard of living that allows us to avail ourselves of those opportunities. Get off your backsides and get moving!

billie, its not that I havent had any dealings with the poor - I lived my entire childhood below the poverty line. Faced having to leave school at 15 to get a job to support the family (single parent family, dad over 50 and illiterate as well as being physically hampered from severe accident) but luckily for me we managed to get by. I went to uni and lived on Austudy for a while. I am not unsympathetic. Even now on a good income I struggle to make ends meet - where 2 years ago I was saving $150-200 week, that now goes on childcare costs. I now save nothing except the bit of tax refund I get at the end of the year, which is used for presents (birthdays etc) and travelling home to see family members 1000km away. I know how expensive it is simply to live. However, I know pensioners that manage sufficiently to keep a car (albeit old) and maintain private health insurance (which I dont have enough in MY budget for). Why can some get by on very little where others struggle at $100,000?

Country Gal congratulations on your successful life.

I wasn't talking about people who can't manage on $100,000, really people in the top decile, earning over $925 per week should be able to cope,according to the latest ABS figures avaiable, 2004 see www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/1020492cfcd63696ca2568a1002477b5/5f4bb49c975c64c9ca256d6b00827adb!OpenDocument

I was talking about people who can't manage on or below the median income of $26,000 - In May 2005 an adult on median income supporting 2 or more dependants was living in poverty.

See Brotherhood of St Lawrence item 3 Poverty Line Update May 2005 at http://www.bsl.org.au/main.asp?PageId=130

Months back when Telstra announced the closing of many public telephones(1500?), there was quite some hand-wringing and commentary on diminishing public access etc. This tumult did not extend to the other issue, that the cost of a local call would rise to fifty cents. I was amazed that all commentary ignored this.
When the increase was implemented, I was left with a phone-card with some credit that was unuseable. My attempt to extract the credit failed when both the credit and the coins disappeared into the machine.
So now I pay fifty cents a local call. How much do YOU pay?

A question for the authors. Does Anglicare in it's operations, make use of people who are subject to Welfare-to-Work provisions, viz. Full time work for the dole?

A site to be promoted:

http://www.centreflunk.com/

GYM-FISH, I didn't get much of an impression that there is a 'poor me' attitude from the posters here who are speaking from personal experience.

It is just frustrating to hear an attitude from others of 'serves you right' and 'you should be grateful' and not think there is any entitlement to a beer at the pub or anything that could be perceived as 'wasting' money. That money isn't yours, only upstanding citizens like CountryGal can 'waste' money at the pokies or you can buy TimTams. Just because TimTams or a packet of chips is much cheaper than 5 apples is beside the point. Welfare money for apples, worked for money for TimTams.

Personally apples are far preferable. Grapes are a luxury, the 5 of us enjoy the 10 bananas a week I buy. I dislike TimTams.

It's a fact that s..t happens, but most want a reasonable life enough to keep on working on getting out of a bad situation. I can't believe anybody could possibly WANT to live on a pittance that only allows subsistence. That's not living. The reasons why some never come out of this quagmire must be more profound and deeper than only laziness.

Yes, you're right in your comments re the dire straights one could be in if living somewhere else, but the fact is you and me, now I'm working again, pay a lot of tax. In other countries you don't. Some of the reasons why I think it's OK to pay so much tax as we do in this country is not to keep many, many politicians comfortable once done with their stint for the country, but to provide services for Australians. Like education, from primary to tertiary, medical cover, infrastructure and social security.

That's why I don't want to live in low taxed USA, India or the Philipines. Financial wealth to me doesn't only equate money in the bank, but also a well maintained house and family. The same surely goes for a nation and its citizens.

Given I have the Commonwealth Ombudsman monitoring my “case”, noted in the two miacat’s post above, and I am told Indigenous peoples within Cape York are also experiencing similar difficulties, I report the latest.

I went to the local media because Legal Aid, and or a Resource Advocate who could deal with this problem, is not present in Cooktown.

We have a Centerlink agency who does a good job stamping local dole-forms but exhibits no-local-determination to “solve-problems” (it’s the law?) as their powers are directive from Cairns, Mackay, Mt Isa, Port Douglas, Bundaberg and or Townsville ‘Centerlink Call Centres’.

These centres are made-up of many individual desk-peoples assigned to “do the job”. Each apparently has a different status, meaning they each see different things on the computer-screen and are limited by what they can actually assess.

Frankly I find the situation critical. No wonder Problem Solving is a challenge?

From the Local News a reporter attempted to check my story. The following is a quote from someone who does not give their NAME… from Centerlink.

Centerlink admitted;

“a couple of isolated instances where payments were delayed but this was quickly resolved and we apologised”

I state again 5 times “cut-off the dole” since Christmas and “8 times cut-off the dole” in less than a year… as well as twice bullied by the “Marriage Investigator’s”, is not “a couple of isolated instances”.

This is both DENIAL and STRUCTURAL ABUSE.

Worse I had to use a Centerlink loan to cover expenses during this time, which I am obligated to give back. On top of this, is the related debt, which occurred in phone bills, bank and late rego fines as the payments exceeded the value of income benefits itself.

Not to mention the distress and disruption to my life.

I believe Centerlink ought to give me back the Centerlink($500) loan don’t you?

I am not ashamed of being on the benefit; I am HUMILIATED because I should not be on it given how hard I actually work!

Please see below;

I run a Non-Government-Organisation which works without funding, all-expenses-come-out-of-my own dole. Many of my clients are worse off than me. I have fought diligently for government services in my local area.

I have been seriously alienated by government staff, who don’t understand the crisis they are actually working with. Health, Unemployment, Housing, Micro Small Enterprise, Training, Kids at Risk, Domestic Violence, Community Isolation, Crime Prevention and Mental Health,to name a few issues.

On top of this I am now told the house that I have just moved into is about to be AUCTIONED.

Can you believe it…? Caught in two cyclones last year where I lost the opportunity to buy the house I was in and now after being “cut-off the dole” and left virtually homeless, the house I now live in is also about to be Actioned.

I am not complaining to the owners, I am revealing how this can happen to anyone and everyone who has not the resources to “protect” themselves against the typical unfavourable, inauspicious economic social environment we experience.

My problem is the extent of the gap between myself and the other skilled workers employed in my own industry. How do I get back on track if the system does not “LISTEN”.

I am a high profile capable person in my region and I tell you to reveal this story is to make a honest CALL for EQUITY.

We need a No-Wrong-Door-Policy YESTERDAY inside Cape York. If this is happening to me imagine how it is for people with half my experience.

I thank the authors for this article and I am always prepared to report what is often unreported… else how do we get the changes necessary to assess these problems.

My region is going through the preparation of two ELECTIONS (Federal and Local) plus a possible Council Amalgamation. I say these ELECTIONS or changes in ADMINISTRATION need to be about LIFE_QUALITY for ALL Australians and not POLITICAL Pot-shots alone.

Below-Link-I wrote this article in response to Simon Crean

http://forum.onlineopinion.com.au/thread.asp?article=5784#78583

Things have to improve between the inter-relationships between the three tier-government system NOW.

http://www.miacat.com/

Miacat, your situation sounds like typical centrelink business. When we had to deal with Centrelink we couldn't get over the gross inefficiency, doubling up, contradictory statements we, just one family of 5, received.

The whole Centrelink/Social Security area needs a massive clean up. Too much money is wasted on idiotic things. I can tell you a few outrageous stories, and we only had to deal with Centrelink for 1 year. That too much money at times is paid to someone is because at Centrelink the left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing and the brain isn't involved at all.

I would be massively surprised if even 50% of money annually spent on 'welfare' actually made it to people and families in need.

The amount of mail we received would mean a small forest had to be woodchipped for paper. I don't even want to think of all the people employed who are supposed to manage this ridiculous setup.

I feel for you, because if you are even moderately with it and moderately well educated after giving information, some of which I think is very personally invasive, to then be treated with extreme inefficiency and idiotic statements is monumentally frustrating. Why this area of government spending is not taken to task is beyond me.

Then, did you know, if an employment agency helps you get a job in the first few weeks, it doesn't get nearly as much money then if you are out of work for one year or more? How's that for incentive? It's a rort at taxpayers and jobseekers expense. That's why their buildings are getting flashier and flashier. The worse the area for employment, the more employment agencies. Think about that. And the really terrible thing is many people just accept the whole dole-bludger, social security bludging thing as gospel. People in need take the rap for gross inefficient government money management and gross mismanagement of supplying services.

Yvonne,
It sounds to me like miacat is a victim of public servants taking the law into their own hands, rather than simple mismanagement. It's a real pity that people who are not aware of the full picture, or are just eager to abuse their power over others, are able to undermine those who attempt to make a real difference. Your story miacat is far too common...

It truly sickens me to hear how poorly Australians are treated when they experience hard times. You'd think they'd never contributed a tax dollar in their lives.

I work full time and only have a small household to feed, yet I know what Yvonne means when she talks about rationing the bananas.

Even with full time work, the cost of fruit and vegies these days is astronomical. To have a healthy diet for the full pay period is a luxury.

What if these families have members with food allergies?

How do people accommodate themselves? Do they move in with family?

I just don't know how these families cope.

I hate this Government.

Gilard WINS on COMMON SENSE!

Social Inclusion is CIVIC business.

10 Points (meinmuk!) to (ALL) those who are trying to understand the dynamic's of 'Mitigating poverty' and the importance of civic wellbeing.

Here's to to YOU Ms Gilard, I hear every word you say!

http://www.bsl.org.au/main.asp?PageId=5054

and to South Australia for some well timed innovative inspiration.

http://www.socialinclusion.sa.gov.au/page.php?id=8

I vote on Work and Family... which is the most practical way to value children as we work to solve the “crisis” in childcare, help connect communities, and return to a 'quality way of life'.

"http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/07/18/1982104.htm

These are REAL ECONOMIC STEPS to an ALL of AUSTRALIAN 2007 FEDERAL ELECTION APPROACH.

The long-term cost savings on Health alone will be plus for our whole national community.

It is GOOD POLICIES like this that will help inspirit the difference.

http://www.miacat.com/
.

I left my job 2 months ago due to poor wages and NO chance of a "raise" ever - was getting 400$ a week as a Juinor Cinema Technition but was Designing, Building, installing and servicing Very Very High End Computer Systems for over 30 cinemas to screen the movies you see today, in addition i had to purchace a new laptop to do my job. so natually as at least half of my WPA was being "neglected" by management i left. They paied me the 4-6 weeks they owed me. and that was that I thoght. so i applied for Newstart so With my New experiance and stacks of IT certificates to my name i thought it would be an easy task.

After paying many bills with the money i got though my (own) redundency i applied for newstart with no money left and only the goverment for help.
I was rejected twice for no good reason.
i was told that leaving work due to WPA's not beeing met by enployer is NOT GOOD ENOUGH.
so now after endless meetings with centerlink I now have Newstart. BUT..
I will not start to recive it untill the 1st week in september which is 6 weeks away.
I have lived for the last 2 months on selling all my posessions (Bar my laptop).
so i have 6 weeks thats 600$ rent, and god knows how many other bills to pay with nohthing. I asked centerlink what i sould do with this (4 Months) of no payment. they said the 2 grand i got from my employer should cover it. which i used 1 and a half months ago to pay back rent with.
So my question is this. Im 33 soon to be homeless. WHAT DO I DO?>
Do i turn to Crime ( an idea ive been seriosly thinking about)

so if this seems a bit hard to understand I havent eaten for 3 days . im sorry.
and so should centerlink when i *go*

Ade,
There are a number of charitable organisations that can assist you for the next six weeks. My advise to you is to try to avoid crime as getting caught will only make your situation worse.