JobSeeker changes require recipients to apply for more jobs, take on offers of ‘suitable work’
Australians receiving JobSeeker will need to look for more jobs each month and take on offers of “suitable work” under an overhaul to the welfare payment.
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- What JobKeeper, JobSeeker changes mean for you
- Tens of thousands of Victorian businesses rush to JobKeeper
More than 1.35 million Australians who are currently receiving JobSeeker payments will need to look for up to eight jobs a month and take on offers of “suitable work”, under new responsibilities placed on dole recipients to get them off welfare and into the workforce.
According to a report in The Australian, gains in the economy and the plan for states to reopen borders by Christmas, has meant the government will tighten JobSeeker eligibility from September 28 and restart work-for-the-dole programs.
Tighter rules, suspended in March as millions of Australians were forced onto welfare programs due to the coronavirus pandemic, will mean the return of tougher penalties and income support payment suspensions for jobseekers who don’t look for work.
Other pre-coronavirus measures being reactivated include welfare recipients having to agree to job plans and attending appointments with employment service providers.
The 474,109 jobseekers in Victoria will continue to have mutual-obligation requirements suspended as the state manages a second wave of COVID-19.
In July last year, there were 686,156 Australians on dole payments. This rose to 1.45 million at the end of July this year, according to The Australian.
JOBKEEPER RORTERS FACE FINES, CRIMINAL CHARGES
Australians rorting the nation’s JobKeeper program have yet to have any action take against them despite the Australian Taxation Office receiving thousands of tip-offs of those doing the wrong thing.
At the Senate Select Committee’s COVID-19 hearing in Canberra on Thursday the Department of the Treasury and the ATO was quizzed over the $100 billion JobKeeper scheme and JobSeeker payments.
The ATO’s second commissioner Jeremy Hirschhorn confirmed they had received more than 9000 tip-offs of people receiving JobKeeper who were doing the wrong thing but no fines or criminal prosecutions had yet been laid.
“So 55,000 applications were stopped in the system before an application was even made,” he said.
“We have done about 75,000 compliance actions in a course of JobKeeper ... one of the issues is employees who are in multiple forms.”
About $75 million in JobKeeper payments have been clawed back including $60 million which was “encouraged” to be paid back and $15 million was forced to be paid back.
He said about 2200 employees that we have identified doing the wrong thing.
Mr Hirschhorn confirmed there had not “yet” been any fines or penalties taken against those receiving JobKeeper that should not have.
“We have had a range of activity of clawing back JobKeeper from people that were claimed inappropriately, we have a number of matters where we are looking to impose penalties,” he said.
“We have a smaller number of matters that are going to the police and via the serious financial crimes task force.”
Those doing the wrong thing face fines and possible criminal prosecution.
Many workers receiving JobKeeper are expected to shift onto JobSeeker at the support payments are wound back later this month.
Treasury’s deputy secretary of fiscal group Jenny Wilkinson said, “There will be definitely will be an increase in the number of JobSeeker recipients”.
“It’s never been the case that you could keep JobKeeper but you couldn’t get JobSeeker, access to JobSeeker is a function of your income,” she said.
“As a consequence of the government introducing a two-tiered payment into the JobKeeper program there will definitely be some additional people who were previously receiving $1500 of JobKeeper who will go to the lower payment rate.”
The Australian Taxation Office’s second commissioner Jeremy Hirschhorn confirmed they had received about 9000 tips offs about people ripping off the JobKeeper scheme but as to date no penalties had yet been applied to those caught doing the wrong thing.
Under the JobKeeper program about 900,000 million businesses and 3.6 million employees have relied on the scheme to keep afloat.
About $46 billion has so far been received in payments.
But the Australian Taxation Office has estimated by the December quarter about 2.24 million individuals are expected to be receiving JobKeeper and of those a majority will be from Victoria at about 1.36 million.
About 1.45 million Australians are receiving JobSeeker payments – previously known as Newstart.
Under Victoria’s stage four restrictions which was rolled out at the beginning of August, Treasury’s deputy secretary of macroeconomic group Luke Yeaman the severe lockdown would cost the economy $10 to $12 billion over the September quarter.
“Certainly the road map that was announced is a more gradual stepped approach to what we had in the July economic updates,” he said.
He said some economic impacts “would carry through to the December quarter.”
The Australian Bureau of Statistics released unemployment figures on Thursday and it fell from 7.5 per cent to 6.8 per cent in August, however those on JobKeeper payments are not deemed unemployed.
For business and not-for-profits wanting to claim JobKeeper payments from September 28 they will need to show they have suffered continued significant decline in their turnover.
From September 28 payments will fall from $1500 per fortnight to $1200 for full-time employees.
They will then fall again from the beginning of January to $1000 per fortnight.
These changes apply to those working at least 20 hours per week.
For part-time employees their payments will fall later on September 28 to $750 a fortnight and then again in January to $650 a fortnight.
All payments are scheduled to end on March 28, 2021.
Ms Wilkinson said many JobKeeper recipients – except in Victoria – were returning to their jobs.
“We are expecting and Victoria is an exception … many of the people who have been on JobKeeper have now been returned to the normal roles that were playing beforehand,” she said.
“Most people on JobKeeper are receiving the income supplement from JobKeeper plus whatever the supplement is to correlate with whatever their normal wage should be.”
For JobSeeker payments single recipients are entitled to $1115.70 per fortnight.
This includes $565.70 JobSeeker payment and the $550 coronavirus supplement.
These amounts vary depending on a person’s situation.
This will then drop at the end of September to $815 a fortnight when the coronavirus supplement is reduced by $300 per fortnight.