what do you think of the new welfare system, i have always thought that there are to many blugers in the system and agree that something had to be done to weed out the blugers however as usual the government always gets it wrong.
the blugers are still getting all there benefits and anyone that has a genuine claim is treated like a criminal who is after a easy ride
i have worked all my life as a bricklayer 40 years my back is stufed
i can no longer work, guess what my wife is thrown out (get a job) she has never worked i can't get a disability pension for two years after paying for everyone else and when i need a hand they say (eat your house)or you can do something all for $384 per fortnight they would not give me a nice job behind the counter with all there benefits oh no link welfair to the tax system and that will weed out the blugers but that would be to simple for them if you have someone
who is 35 or 40 and is fit and well has not payed tax there's your bluger not me.

That is going to be difficult Leo,since you are considered to have job skills and the long term recalcitrant DSP and dole frauds are just in the too hard basket.This where the building industry needs ot educate people in planning their exit from literally back breaking work.You should have left brick laying 10 yrs ago.
Leo consider a wide range of options rather than relying on the Govt.Can you become self employed in another field.I knew a man in his 70's who made a good living out of making and fitting screens for doors & windows.Don't give up.

In this case I tend to agree with arjay, from different sides of the politics fence our long term aims are bound to be different.
My wish is a better life for those who must live on Social Security, more income that is.
But it is only a dream unless we stop waste in the present system, we are progressing only slowly.
I am aiming at another way of earning an income till I can work no longer if my job ends.
And in truth an income and reason for existing other than the forever low survival only status of Social Security is by far a better lifestyle.
The pain however should see more effort to help you .

if all of you are perfectly willing to submit to the pollies that create this situation, you are complicit.

you don't have to let pollies run things, but it's convenient and you are raised to be submissive. well, like the sheep you are, the graziers are not concerned with sheep that don't produce fleece. you're lucky they don't turn you into soylent green, or mutton.

I am aiming at another way of earning an income till I can work no longer if my job ends.
Belly,
I agree BUT, if you lose your income through no fault of your own then I believe a so-called civilised society with no shortage of funding has an obligation to help it's citizens when in need. After all, when times are good the very same society has no qualms when taxing it's citizens.
Australia is a nation which has sufficient accumulated wealth. The stumbling block is merely the distribution of this wealth. After all, we are presently keeping four ex Prime Ministers & only God knows how many Senior Bureaucrats, Judges & Academics who no longer, if ever, contributed to the country's wealth. Look at HIH's 1.6 billion $ debt left for the taxpayers to deal with. The list just goes on.
Never forget, it's the working class' efforts which build up the coffers with their income & countless other taxes.

Individual you speak for me, I am not anti welfare far from it, my proud movement played its part in getting it.
I think deeply and honestly we must reform it.
Not kill it but re look at it why do the very rich get child welfare?
What is so wrong about sifting fraud from the system?
I personally truly think some jobs should be reserved for the elderly or those who can not hold a full time job.
This could be a hundred pages long but we must look for better lifestyle for those who must live on welfare while seeing only they get welfare.
A side issue superannuation, if the union movement target of 15% contributions can not be met we must give even more tax breaks so that more may never need welfare.

i was going to keep out of some of these debates but its hard to sit back and not have a say ,well the welfare , is a big question ,it covers so many boundries ,it would be very hard to put a person out in the work force if they have mental issues as their conertration is not fully on the job at hand as i sigle comment could change a persons reaction if they are unstable that is why some people are on disabilty pensions if it i a risk of the employer who employs a person who has to be placed into a job yes slowly persons can do things gradually but things still wonder in their minds not everyone is the same ,a person whom just bluggers of the goverment with no problems of health they should be in the work force as for victims like me that was raped and abused as a child i tried and worked for years until a break down happed now my life is more difficult than beofre ,so thats my answer some may agree some may not ,and hello to all the forgotten australians and all on the site here i hope this year becomes a year for the truth with all goverments and our contry and to stop all the cover ups that have occurred in the past kind regards micheal a forgotten australian victim ,

And the world goes around once again! Your story is touching, but wipe your poor me tears away. I don't know what you have been through, but what is done is done. The people of the pasted have been through a thousand time more than you have, and I hope you will find strength in this.

Welfare is a system that has been put there to help all those who cant help themselves.

Just be careful what you put on here, cause people are very quick too judge. Half of people in the world, wouldn't know a hard time, and maybe, I am totally wrong, but let me leave you with this!

NO retreat, No surrender!

I am in my early fifties, unfortunately due to my profession as computer programmer I am out work as the project has been completed. I am stuck in the merry go round with my job network provider deciding which box they will put me in this time. My wife is on the age pension, so any income I receive is halved by Centrelink to calculate my fortnightly Newstart Allowance payment. What this means, is that I need to earn twice as much income for my Centrelink payment to be reduced to nil. During 2007, I worked 30 hours a week for 6 months under a wage assist subsidy. During this period I still received a part Centrelink payment. If they did not have a partner on the pension my Centrelink payment would had cancelled after 13 weeks from when I started working. This would mean I would start at the beginning unemployment cycle not classified as very long term unemployed. When my wages assist subsidy ceased, I immediately started voluntary work for a local community organization so that I would not get bored while looking for work. I have been working over 30 hours per week for the last six months. At a recent meeting with my job network provider, I was offered three choices, telemarketing for a charity, cleaning or full-time work for dole for 12 months. Not a great choice of options I must say. After much protest on my part, I accepted the full-time work for the dole option as I could continue working for the community group I been volunteering for the last 6 months. Apparently referral to full-time work for the dole is for job seekers who deemed to demonstrate a history of work avoidance. I do not understand why the job network provider has put into this box (Not chocolate).

Has anyone else got any similar experiences with this crazy system?

Possum54, I'm so sorry for the soul destroying runaround that you've received.I have a friend who has been given the same treatment.

If you have a 'valid'!! grievance, contact Hank Jongen who heads Centrelink on hank@centrelink.gov.au

(I hope the link works; that's what he gave out on radio!)

It's worth a shot. I have heard repeatedly of folk being told different things by different staff.

__________________

Evolution: You're not wrong people are quick to judge!!.........

Possum - I have Centrelink stories up the yin yang, but here's a real doozy:

Even though a journalist/writer/playwright etc. for 20 years and having owned my own business and been Director of my father's, I was classified as unskilled because my first time round at Uni I didn't sit my Finals.

The only jobs I was ever offered were as a kitchen hand or cleaner. I did them but considered it a waste of what I could do so was working full time - no pay - for Mental Health as well.

Kept up the Mental Health lecturing, suicide intervention, support group counselling and made two doco's, but went back to Uni at the same time (as well as trying to raise two boys as a sole parent)and did a double degree with Honours.

Went back to Job Network with the ink on my little piece of paper still wet so they could change my classification to skilled. However, the guy interviewing kept me waiting over an hour (I was due to deliver a lecture that afternoon so was pushed for time), did not apologise and kept referring to me as "luv" and "darlin'" . I called him on it.

Three months went by and still the only offers were kitchen hand or cleaner so I went to investigate.

Seems my attitude to him had been "cheeky" so he hadn't bothered to enter my four years of hard slog at Uni into the system but continued to list me as unskilled "to teach her a lesson"!

how hard would it be to have a point system from your tax records,
the more you have worked the less likely you are deemed a bluger
there must be a way of weeding the cheats out from the genuine
as usual the system treats everyone as trying to get money for nothing
so people like me that have worked there ass of for forty years are treated the same as a twenty seven year old that has never worked an has no intention to do so and don't tell me that it would be to hard
to do as the information from government records on everyone in australia can be easely linked to the welfair system and they have plenty of staff at all there offices to do so this way they could increase pensions, war veterans payments look after the mentaly ill
an so on an still save money.