Welfare myths
Posted: Sat May 07, 2011 12:30 am
Interesting stats, I wonder how the UK and USA compares..RELIANCE on social security payments fell significantly as full-time jobs increased in the decade to 2009, undermining the moral panic about burgeoning welfare rolls.
Analysis by the Australian Council of Social Service shows the proportion of people of working age on welfare has fallen from 18 per cent to 14 per cent, a 20 per cent reduction, and is below the average in member nations of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.
The proportion of people of working age on unemployment benefits has fallen sharply over the decade, and the proportion on the parenting payment has fallen 30 per cent since 2005.
Even the proportion of the working age population on the disability support pension, which causes politicians the biggest headaches, has fallen slightly since 2004.
Only the proportion on carer payment has grown, but from a low base. (The report excludes age and veteran pensioners and full-time students.)
The report's author, Peter Davidson, said the main reason for the fall was the growth in full-time jobs. ''This shows the single most important factor in reducing the need for social security payments is good macro-economic policy,'' he said.
The paper, Beyond Stereotypes, challenges what it calls the myths about Australia's 2.08 million social security recipients that dominate public debate and hamper efforts to improve their job prospects.
It says it is a myth that the typical unemployed person is a school leaver who could find a job quickly if he or she searched hard enough.
Last year only 27 per cent of unemployment payment recipients were under 25, nearly a third were 45 or older, and 41 per cent were 25 to 44.
As unemployment fell and some people found work quickly, the remaining unemployed have become more disadvantaged: half have received a payment for more than a year, and a quarter for more than three years. As well, one in seven has been assessed as only able to work part-time because of a disability.
Mr Davidson said that while the number of recipients might have increased with population growth, what mattered was the proportion of working age people on social security, which had fallen.
The report says it is a myth that the growth in the number of disability support pensioners is due to ''older men with bad backs'' being wrongly approved for payment.
The strongest growth since the early 1990s has been among women. They comprised 43 per cent of recipients in 2008, compared with 26 per cent in 1990.
An important reason was the closure of other payments to older women, including the age pension for women aged 60 to 63.
The proportion with musculoskeletal conditions, including bad backs, fell from 40 per cent to 31 from 1992 to 2008 and growing proportions had mental or intellectual disabilities.
Mr Davidson said it was also a myth that a typical sole parent on social security was a teenage mother reliant entirely on the benefit. Only 2 to 3 per cent were teenagers. Eighty-five per cent were over 25. Almost a third of sole parents on the parenting payment worked part time.
Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/national/jobs-gro ... z1LccLBHgS
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