Welfare con job: Thousands of Aussies reject job offers to stay on benefits

EXCLUSIVE: Treasurer Scott Morrison has used tough language in his response to the fact that 35,000 Australians had managed to claim welfare despite turning down a chance of employment.

• DOLE BLUDGERS ULTIMATUM: NO JOB? NO HANDOUTS

TREASURER Scott Morrison has said anyone who is unemployed and refuses to take a job should not get the dole.

He was responding on the radio today to the news in today’s Daily Telegraph that up to 36,000 Australians have rejected job offers so they can stay on generous taxpayer-funded welfare payments without turning up to work.

“If they knock back those jobs, they are not taking those jobs, then they shouldn’t be getting the dole,” Mr Morrison told the Ray Hadley program on Sydney’s 2GB.

Acting Opposition Leader Tanya Plibersek said anyone taking advantage of the social security system should have the book thrown at them.

35,000 Australians are knocking back work to remain on welfare. Picture: Carmela Roche

She said there is no excuse for choosing not to work, although most people who are receiving unemployment benefits are desperate to find work.

“If someone is rorting, they should have to book thrown at them but let’s have a government that’s serious about supporting jobs for Australians too,” she told reporters in Sydney.

Mr Morrison said the government had been trying to get legislation from the 2015/16 budget passed that would put in place a four-week waiting period for the youth allowance.

“So that means you can’t go from the school front gate when you leave school to the Centrelink front door,” the treasurer said.

“Labor should support this, the crossbenchers should support this.” It was originally a six-month waiting period under a proposal in the 2014/15 budget but proved unacceptable to the Senate.

Meanwhile, the Productivity Commission is seeking submissions into its inquiry into reforms to human services, which aims to apply competition principles to the sector as recommended by the Harper review.

Six areas have been identified - social housing, public hospitals, end-of-life care services, public dental services, services in remote indigenous communities and government-commissioned family and community services.

Submissions are due by February 10, 2017.

Minister for Human Services, Alan Tudge said there were whole regions where as many people receive their income from welfare as from a job.

Human Services Minister Alan Tudge said in this morning’s Daily Telegraph there are areas where business owners can’t find workers to do entry-level jobs, like fruit picking or working in an abattoir, but unemployment is high.

Mr Tudge also said there were “whole regions where as many people receive their income from welfare as from a job”. The Daily Telegraph understands about half the people aged 18 and over in the NSW electorates of Cowper and Blaxland receive welfare payments. This includes suburbs like Coffs Harbour, Auburn and Regents Park.

“We are fortunate to have a strong social security system for when people are down on their luck, but it must be a safety net, not a destination,” Mr Tudge said. In the year to October 2016, there were 35,576 occasions when welfare-dependent Australians who were perfectly capable of working refused to take or hold down a suitable job.

Some refused a job offer outright. Others accepted the job but never turned up.

More than 22,000 quit their new job without a good reason to go back on unemployment payments.

And another 10,000 were sacked from their new job for serious misconduct, such as theft, assault or harassment of colleagues or customers, or unauthorised absences from work.

At $160 billion, the cost of welfare makes up a third of all government expenditure. Ahead of the May budget, the Turnbull government is looking at ways to rein in the spend, which is exploding by 6 per cent a year.

Only one in five dole bludgers were penalised by Centrelink, the rest getting off scot-free.

Australia’s welfare system, crucial to save struggling families from poverty, is being abused by a section of the population.

The government has started to analyse where the problem areas are and how many people capable of working are refusing to accept jobs.

It’s a problem that prominent indigenous leader Noel Pearson has described as the “welfare pedestal”, where people see no ­financial incentive to get a job.

Only one in five dole bludgers were penalised by Centrelink, the rest getting off scot-free despite the law stating that those who refuse to work should have their welfare payments docked.

Projections show that more than 100,000 jobs will open up in the aged, disability and child care sector over the next few years.

However, advice to government is that it will be ­difficult to transition those on welfare payments into these jobs.

Mr Tudge said while Australians rightly expect government assistance to find a job, they are required to take up a job when one is on offer.

“Even if the first job is not perfect, once a person has a job and does it well, it is so much easier to get the next one,” he said.

“Those who make deliberate decisions to end their job make it harder for everyone else to be given a go, because employers lose confidence.”

In September, The Daily Telegraph revealed those who refused to work would be kicked off the dole.

There are concerns in the Turnbull government about intergenerational welfare, where entire generations, from grandparent to newborns will spend their lives on handouts, stuck in the welfare cycle.