Budget 2017: Substance abuse crackdown and random tests for dole bludgers
DRUGGIES and drunks will be booted off the dole or forced into rehab as the Turnbull government forces random drug tests on the jobless.
Federal Budget
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DRUGGIES and drunks will be booted off the dole or forced into rehab as the Turnbull government forces random drug tests on the jobless.
Hangovers will no longer be a valid excuse for dole bludgers to skip job interviews, in a crackdown on welfare fraud to save taxpayers $632 million over the next four years.
Older job seekers will be forced to look harder for work, and alcoholism or drug-dependency will be removed as a stand-alone reason for getting the Disability Support Pension (DSP) from July 1 this year.
Drug addicts and alcoholics could be forced into rehab as a condition of welfare payments.
Random drug tests will be carried out on 5000 job seekers in 2018 and 2019, with saliva, urine and hair samples taken to test for ice, cannabis and ecstasy. Private drug testing companies would carry out on-the-spot tests at three trial sites nationally, to be chosen on the basis of wastewater testing that identifies local drug use in various locations.
Your five-minute guide to the 2017 Federal Budget
Social Services Minister Christian Porter said unemployed people were 2.4 times more likely to use illicit drugs than those with jobs.
Dole recipients who flunk a drug test will have their welfare payments “quarantined” so they can only spend money on essentials such as food, housing and utilities.
They will be subjected to ongoing random drug tests and forced to see a government-appointed doctor if they fail a second time. The doctor could recommend a stint in drug rehab, medication or Alcoholics Anonymous meetings as a condition of staying on welfare.
Job seekers who skip job or job placement interviews will be stripped of welfare under a “three strikes’’ demerit system.
Job agencies paid by the government to find work for job seekers will be forced to tell Centrelink of every no-show for interviews. Job seekers will be allowed to miss three appointments in six months before losing half a fortnightly payment — equivalent to a $267.50 fine for a single person.
From singles to families, sole parents and retirees — this is what it means for you
If they break the rules again, they will lose a full payment worth $535.60 and after three strikes they will have to wait a month to reapply for the dole.
A new Jobseeker Payment will replace five existing welfare payments from March 2020. Newstart, the Sickness Allowance, Wife Pension, Partner Allowance, Bereavement Allowance, Widow Allowance and Widow B Pension will be axed.
But 99 per cent of recipients will get the same payment on the new Jobseeker allowance.
INTERVIEW DODGERS GIVE ME THE SHEETS
Keely McDonough
AFTER years spent doggedly pursuing her dream of becoming a sheet metal engineer, Jessica Chironna has no sympathy for dole bludgers who skip job interviews.
“I totally support a crackdown,” the 20-year-old apprentice from Whalan in Sydney’s west, said.
“People need to earn what they have. Hard working Aussies have to pay for the people on the dole, we are just chucking money at them while they go about their lives doing nothing.”
Ms Chironna, who has been an apprentice for two years and is in her third year studying engineering at Mt Druitt TAFE, said it is “infuriating” when welfare recipients could not be bothered to attend job interviews.
She questioned the priorities of people on welfare who spend money on luxuries.
“I see lots of people on the dole in the latest clothes with the latest technology,” she said. “The people who want to do something, they push and push to get it.
“I think there are many people who could make a contribution to society, but they don’t because being on the dole is easier.
“School time is where you figure out what you want to do, you go to trade days and open university days. That is what I did, and now I’m here.”
Originally published as Budget 2017: Substance abuse crackdown and random tests for dole bludgers
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