Federal Budget changes to welfare would have a devastating effect on many thousands of Tasmanian jobseekers and their families, the Tasmanian Council of Social Service says.

TasCOSS has prepared estimates on the effects of the Budget plan to deny income support to unemployed people under 30 for six months of the year.

TasCOSS estimates that 12,759 ‘suspensions’ of benefits will be placed on Tasmanian jobseekers in the next four years. This will involve the loss of either the Youth or Newstart Allowance as well as supplementary benefits such as rent assistance.

“This is a Federal Government experiment being conducted on a huge scale without any evidence to suggest that it will be successful in getting more people into work,” TasCOSS deputy CEO Meg Webb said today.

“This dubious experiment will leave many thousands of Tasmanian jobseekers without any income for six months of the year and also affect their families when they turn to them for survival,” Ms Webb said.

“The lack of spending by unemployed Tasmanians under 30 for six months of the year will also suck more than $78 million out of the local economy over four years,” Ms Webb said.

TasCOSS estimates that a total of $85 million in income support will be lost by Tasmanians affected by welfare suspensions over four years.
This will barely be counterbalanced by an extra $6.84 million that Tasmanian emergency relief providers will receive from Canberra over four years to assist those left destitute by the welfare changes.

“TasCOSS has modelled its estimates on conservative figures, taking into account exemptions and other variables,” Meg Webb said.
“We challenge the Federal Government to produce clear and accurate figures that show any better outcome than our modelling predicts,” Ms Webb said.

“And we urge all Tasmanian senators, from all parties, to oppose this damaging and unfair attack on income support for jobless people under 30.”

Another of the Budget welfare measures is the expansion of Work for the Dole. TasCOSS has calculated that this expansion would require about 17,000 Work for the Dole placements to be made over four years in Tasmania.

The bulk of individual work placements would be at not-for-profit organisations, under Government guidelines, putting strain on these organisations and also raising a question mark over the fate of volunteering programs at these workplaces.

TasCOSS is the peak body for the Tasmanian community services sector.

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Federal_Budget_Fact_sheet_1_A_planned_crisis_(Aug_2014).pdf

Federal_Budget_fact_sheet_2_Work_for_the_Dole_final_(Aug_2014).pdf
TasCOSS deputy CEO Meg Webb