Recently I was placed on the federal government's Mutual Obligation program, otherwise known as 'Work for the Dole'. This happened as a result of being on a partial Newstart payment for 12 months. I have been underemployed for around three years now and Newstart provided a welcome top-up as I continued to look for more work.
Each Newstart recipient is given a Job Access Provider (JAP) to help them look for work. My JAP informed me that I was required to do 21 hours per week of Mutual Obligation activity. This was in addition to looking for work, made up of applying for at least 20 jobs every four weeks.
My JAP worker assured me that the 21 hours per week would help me to remain motivated and focused on the task at hand: finding work. I replied that I would now have to stop doing the things that were keeping me motivated to satisfy my Mutual Obligation requirements.
I live in Western Sydney. My JAP had me volunteering with a Christian outreach program doing good things in the area for people living with significant financial and personal disadvantage, largely via housing and food initiatives. It is safe to say that many of these people are unemployed.
After four weeks on 'Work for the Dole' I decided that it was best for my own wellbeing to go back to the things I had been doing to remain motivated. This meant coming off Newstart. Fortunately, I have good support. Others are not so fortunate.
The others with me doing their own Mutual Obligation hours were diverse: people living with various forms of mental and emotional disorder deemed by their JAP and the federal government as employable. There were also people with differing physical conditions similarly assessed as employable. Add to this underemployed people and itinerate workers between jobs. One person I spoke to, who was an underemployed casual teacher, said that her Newstart benefit was paying her rent.
A common experience of those I spoke with during this time was that their longterm experience had been one of a slow decent into hopelessness and powerlessness. The combination of an inadequate Newstart while searching for 20 jobs a month plus compulsory Mutual Obligation (as well as, for some, underemployment) had become overwhelming.
"What we now have in this country is a cohort of Australians who will never find work, or enough work."
A recent news report contained an estimation that 28,000