Anti-crime crusader: Centrelink sanctions causing teens to commit crimes

Cairns youth advocate says illiterate young people are turning to crime after having their Centrelink payments suspended.

Youth crime has been linked back to Centrelink suspensions, according to local youth advocate Perri Conti.

A Cairns youth advocate says that young adults who cannot read or write are turning to crime to make ends meet when Centrelink suspends their payments.

Perri Conti said Centrelink suspensions “don’t just lead to crime, they directly cause crime”.

She said that many of the young people who commit offences like robberies and break and enters are illiterate and have no regular address and no phone.

The anti-crime campaigner said she is working with one 18-year-old, *William, who did not know how to use myGov and couldn’t read numbers, and was cut off by Centrelink.

William responded by breaking into a house.

Perri Conti ... Centrelink suspensions ‘don’t just lead to crime, they directly cause crime’. Picture: Brendan Radke

“He just got out of (Cleveland Youth Detention Centre) and he spent a long time in (Department of Communities, Child Safety and Disability Services run) residential houses. Nobody taught him to read or write. I took him to the supermarket because he didn’t know how to read use-by dates … he got off Centrelink, broke into a house, and he is looking at going to an adult prison for the first time,” she said.

“When you’re on Centrelink you’ve got to do so many points like apply for jobs, and you get so many points. If you don’t meet that criteria and you don’t go into your appointments, Centrelink cuts them off and this means starting the whole process again which can take weeks.

“These kids don’t understand how Centrelink works and are simply not employable at this point.”

break and enter generic

The Australian Council of Social Services estimates around 200,000 people have their Centrelink payments suspended each month nationwide.

Their research shows that people receive payment suspensions because they have been reported as not attending an appointment with a provider or have not met job search targets or reporting requirements.

A spokesman from the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations told the Cairns Post that around 95 per cent of payment suspensions are resolved within 28 calendar days, “meaning that most suspensions do not result in any actual loss of payments”.

“Additionally, where payment cancellations occur, linked data analysis has found that the large majority of individuals who exit employment services due to income support cancellation for failure to re-engage report being employed three months after exit,” the spokesman said.

Ms Conti added that other agencies should have provided more support when William asked for help.

After Centrelink cut him off, he went into the Department of Communities, Child Safety and Disability Services to ask for a food voucher because he was hungry.

“It took them three days to organise a $100 voucher. Then, instead of giving him the $100 voucher – which could only be spent on food – they got someone to do the shopping for him without even asking him and came back with two-minute noodles and stale bread,” Ms Conti said.

Perri Conti (centre), Julia West and Charmaine Leborgne protest about youth crime outside Parliament House earlier this year.

“Then they told him they had spent $50 and he would get the other $50 the following week. Well, the following week never came because he was back out there committing crime.”

* Not his real name

Originally published as Anti-crime crusader: Centrelink sanctions causing teens to commit crimes