Dole recipients rise as national welfare bill soars to $200 billion a year

EXCLUSIVE: THE number of Aussie on the dole has increased by about 70 per cent over the past decade, as our welfare bill balloons towards $200b a year.

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THE number of Australians on the dole has increased by about 70 per cent over the past decade, as our welfare bill balloons towards $200 billion a year.

Thousands of welfare recipients are being moved on to the dole where they are forced to actively search for jobs to keep benefits. The Daily Telegraph can reveal the number of Australians claiming the dole has risen from 453,793 in 2005 to 768,375 in March this year.

There are 16 different types of welfare payment Australians can claim with the welfare budget projected to increase from $158.6 billion this financial year to $191.8 billion in 2019-20.

In all, the total number of welfare recipients from 2005-2015 increased from 4.4 million to 5.2 million. Just over 20 per cent of the nation are claiming welfare, that does not include family tax benefits.

Crackdowns on payments such as the Disability Support Pension, which does not require recipients to seek work, has seen the number claiming the DSP drop from a peak of 832,533 to under 788,099.

Some have been moved on to Newstart which pays jobless singles $528.70 a fortnight and jobless couples $954.80 a fortnight, providing they enter a job plan and apply for work.

Thousands of welfare recipients are being moved on to the dole where they are forced to actively search for jobs to keep benefits.

The startling figures are behind a crackdown led by Social Services Minister Christian Porter to encourage more people into work rather than live off the taxpayer.

“Part of what the government has sought to achieve is to identify people who have a fair and reasonable capacity to work, but who are on a payment type that imposes no real obligation on them to search for work, and have those individuals move to the Newstart system where there are obligations,’’ Mr Porter told The Daily Telegraph.

Mr Porter said it was incumbent on the government to encourage more Australians to work.

“It’s clear there are too many people in the welfare system with the capacity to work,’’ he said.

“We need to find a better way of helping people become self-reliant.”

Mr Porter did concede the dole system also needed to be tightened.

There were still about 100,000 people flying under the radar.

“Even inside the Newstart system there is room to reform the mutual obligation process.”

The government’s welfare reform has been hampered by the Labor Party which believes the government is attempting to rip money from the country’s most vulnerable people.

One controversial measure still before parliament is forcing young Australians to spend at least one month looking for work before they can access the dole.

It is understood that Senator Pauline Hanson, whose One Nation party has four senate spots, will likely support much of the Turnbull government’s crackdown on welfare cheats.

Crackdowns on payments such as the Disability Support Pension, which does not require recipients to seek work, has seen the number claiming the DSP drop from a peak of 832,533 to under 788,099.