Welfare reform: a primer
Peter Davidson
Australian Council of Social Service
Contact Email:   peteracoss.org.au

The Australian Government has announced major changes to the social security system and employment assistance. The main changes canvassed by the Government at this stage are:

- tighter eligibility requirements for Disability Support Pension and increased employment assistance for people with disabilities
- New work and activity requirements for Parenting Payment recipients with school age children, and increased assistance with child care and training
- Tougher activity requirements for unemployed people on Newstart Allowance, and a new wage subsidy scheme to improve their job prospects.

The Government argues these changes are essential to reduce long term reliance on social security.

Yet concerns have been raised about whether the policies will achieve this goal, and about their effect on recipients.

This paper deals in summary form with two questions:
1. What are the basic facts and trends concerning reliance on social security among people of workforce age?
2. What are the likely effects on recipients, and on reliance on social security, of the proposed changes?

Some of the facts outlined include:
- reliance on social security among people of workforce age has fallen for the past seven years
- projections by the Productivity Commission suggest that in 40 years, the budgetary cost of these payments (in proportion to GDP) will be less than it is today
- the fastest growing groups of DSP recipients are older women and younger men
- about half of Parenting Payment recipients are employed

Paper Download Information (if available):

Paper140.ppt

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