Poverty Issues

[stevebrooks]

What it says on the box. 47-slide article (damn that format) on UBI, and how it consistently works when tested.

https://gizmodo.com/universal-basic-inc ... 1851255547

Yep, just give everyone money, the government spends billions on running programs to try and force people to work, that money could go straight to the recipients and the government would probably actually save money from not having to run a huge bureaucracy. The fact is, people who don't want to work won't work no matter what you do, they will figure some way around any system you put in place so you may as well just give them money anyway, people who do want to work would be far happier and probably find suitable work faster if there wasn't a huge bureaucracy in place hounding them every week or few days to make reports and justify why they were getting money and to guilt them as dole bludgers.

It has been rested in multiple countries and in multiple circumstances, and in every case it has better results than our current system, it's just that it doesn't produce people to blame when the government needs a scapegpoat!

[Irrev-Black]

Don't get zucked in by non-realities.

[pipbarber]

Resistance to UBI is based more on ethical objections than economic ones. The economy needs to be served, the narcissism of wealth needs worship. If everyone had enough to live on, over time, the work ethic would collapse and so would neoliberalism and the wealthy would start looking like a bunch stupid egotistical fuckwits that don't have any hobbies beside counting their money and buying stuff.

[stevebrooks]

We don't seem to have a general catch all bucket in this forum so I am going to put this here;

QUESTION: Do I have to pay a babysitter the legal minimum wage? I don’t go out often but when I do it becomes a hugely expensive ordeal because I need to get a babysitter who seem to think charging $35 an hour to sit on my couch is reasonable! When I was a kid, we used to just get the teenager across the road to babysit but now the whole market seems to be tied up with people who want to charge a fortune. If I do get a teenage neighbour to babysit then surely I’m not expected to pay them the minimum wage of $23.23 per hour? Next, they’ll be expecting Sunday loading! – Jas, NSW

Answer, or what should have been the answer, the actual article goes on rambling about minimum wage and age of babysitter and whether the baby sitter is an employee or a contractor, whether they get uniform and etc, you get the idea; "If you don't want to pay the babysitter what the babysitter is asking for then look around for a cheaper babysitter, if you can't find one then the babysitter is asking a reasonable payment!"

Of course you don't need anything but a working with children clearance to be a babysitter in Australia, but they do recommend a number of skills, like first aid and etc, some babysitters even take out nanny insurance, so comparing today to when they were kids just doesn't work. Basically if you aren't willing to pay what the babysitter is asking then you won't get a babysitter. Of course the article headline is "Outrage at babysitter’s pay demand" and I don't see where that comes from, you call someone, you ask the price, you either take it or you don't, where does the outrage come in? Don't babysitters deserve to be paid a decent amount of money? I mean it's your kids life in their hands, sometimes literally, dumping on people because they want to be paid a decent amount is bizarre!

https://www.news.com.au/finance/work/do ... cda6fee95b

[Irrev-Black]

It is said that stupidity is trying the same thing over and over again, and expecting a different result.

Perhaps something should be done to separate the investment properties, generous pay, and allowances for every-bloody-thing from those in charge of determining poor people's payments.

And, in many cases, it would be wise to change the person, too, by any means necessary.

Meanwhile, read about the latest disappointment.

Welfare recipients despair over poverty inquiry failure
"No one left behind" rings more hollow with each passing day under the Albanese government

The Antipoverty Centre
Feb 28





The Antipoverty Centre categorically rejects the Senate Community Affairs Committee’s pathetically inadequate recommendations arising from its inquiry into the extent and nature of poverty in Australia. The report was tabled in the senate last night.

The poverty inquiry report is just the latest in a long line of deep disappointments faced by welfare recipients under the Albanese government.

At the same time as living cost increases are far outstripping changes in Centrelink payment rates, the government is actively pursuing higher unemployment, condemning more of us to live in deep poverty for reasons beyond our control.

Quotes attributable to Antipoverty Centre spokesperson and JobSeeker recipient Jay Coonan

These recommendations are an insult to the hundreds of welfare recipients who contributed to the inquiry and to the millions of people living well below the poverty line in this country.

Despite having a Labor-Greens majority, the committee couldn’t even bring itself to make the single most obvious recommendation that can drastically cut poverty overnight: higher income support. In 2020 the Morrison government showed just how easily this can be done.

Instead, we got yet another list of proposed reviews and tweaks.

The welfare system is killing people. Our lives are getting harder, and it’s clear that most politicians do not care whether we live or die as a result of the policies that leave us sick, hungry, homeless and suicidal.

Poverty is not a “wicked problem”.

We don’t need more reviews, we don’t need more consideration, we just need all Centrelink payments increased to at least the Henderson poverty line and we need it now.

Media contact: 0403 429 414‬ / media at antipovertycentre.org

Oh, there's a petition, too.

From AUWU.org.au:

With a backlog of 1.1 million claims, and up to 50% of calls going unanswered, the crisis at Centrelink requires immediate government intervention. All processes that are needlessly choking the system must be suspended, to free up resources, get through the backlog, and service people properly.

In our new petition, we're urging the government to use emergency measures to fix Centrelink now.

Can you sign and share our petition? Link here: https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/use ... relink-now

[stevebrooks]

UBI? Fuck no, we gun make law bout that!

Arizona GOP trying to pass bill that bans UBI!

[pipbarber]

UBI? Fuck no, we gun make law bout that!

Arizona GOP trying to pass bill that bans UBI!

Remember in the 90s when the electoral mantra was: 'it's the economy, stupid.' Well, it aint that anymore. The ideologues have taken over the inn, and now it's capitalism for the ethos it imposes and for the wealth of it's proponents and its beneficiaries, (whose numbers are shrinking).

'It's the wealthy, stupid.'

[Irrev-Black]

The IPA: thick, or deceptive?

FACT CHECK: IPA attack on welfare recipients shows prejudice not evidence
The Antipoverty Centre
Apr 08, 2024

The Institute of Public Affairs welfare “research” released yesterday either wilfully misrepresents or completely misunderstands data related to income support payments and the National Disability Insurance Scheme to invoke “dole bludger” myths.

There is no evidence to support the IPA’s disgusting attack on poor and disabled people or the claim “there is a rapidly growing cohort who could work, but do not.”

It is designed to confect outrage in the lead-up to the 14 May federal budget and manufacture consent for the government’s plans to undermine the NDIS and its continued refusal to meaningfully relieve the extreme distress being felt by welfare recipients due to skyrocketing living costs.

The Antipoverty Centre is issuing this fact check using readily available public information given that media outlets who repeated the claims have failed to do so.

The IPA’s shameful twisting of facts comes as welfare recipients suffer under increasingly brutal conditions, including unliveable payment rates, housing insecurity and punishment meted out by the (un)employment services providers who administer compulsory “mutual” obligations. It ignores that poverty itself is a barrier to work, and that payments today leave people in far worse poverty than they did before COVID.

What income support data really shows is that the large drop in people receiving the Disability Support Pension coincides with a rapid rise in the number of disabled people on unemployment payments.

Welfare is not a dirty word. It should be every government’s highest priority to make sure that anyone who needs support can get it – something that neither major party has done.

The IPA calls for urgent action and we agree.

Labor must urgently increase all Centrelink payments to at least the Henderson poverty line, work with unemployed advocates to develop a sophisticated poverty measure, abolish “mutual” obligations and ensure every person who needs income support can get it.

There is no such thing as a responsible budget that leaves people in poverty.
Media contact: 0413 261 362 / media at antipovertycentre.org
Background information and key statistics

The time periods below correspond to those used by the IPA.

The IPA’s misleading claim states that there are 2.1 million people “receiving welfare”.

This language conflates social security payments such as JobSeeker and the Disability Support Pension with the NDIS, which does not provide money to participants and cannot be used for living expenses.

The IPA appears to have double counted some individuals, as many NDIS participants rely on an income support payment for living expenses.

The information published by the IPA wrongly implies that people on income support and NDIS participants do not do paid work.

See below for data breakdowns and sources
Income support data

Note: 2013 and 2018 figures include Newstart and related payments that were replaced by JobSeeker in 2020.

There are 1.75 million people receiving the social security payments the IPA included in its figures (Disability Support Pension, JobSeeker and Youth Allowance). Of these, 194,000 are over 65 and would previously have qualified for the age pension (a welfare payment the IPA did not include in its figures) before changes introduced in 2017.

The proportion of people under 65 receiving these payments has fallen by 26% (from 7.89% of the population in 2013 to 5.81% today).

20% of people on an unemployment payment are employed but still receive a partial payment because their wages are so low (excluding student payment).

The increase of 32,735 in the number of people on an unemployment payment today compared to 2018 is exceeded by the increase in the number of people over 65 on an unemployment payment, which was 36,686 over the same period.

Following major changes introduced by the Gillard government, the number of people under 65 on the DSP fell by 121,852 between 2013 and 2018. Between 2018 and today it has fallen by another 32,347.

41.1% of people on an unemployment payment are unable to work more than 30 hours per week for health reasons, up from 25.1% in 2018. (2013 data not available.)

Since 2018, the average duration on income support for people receiving an unemployment payment has fallen slightly from 5.6 years to 5.5 years. (2013 data not available.)

Sources: DSS demographics (see: https://data.gov.au/dataset/ds-dga-cff2 ... a0/details); ABS population (see: https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/people/population).
NDIS data

The total number of adults under 65 on the NDIS is 279,199.

As of 2021, more than half the people on the NDIS had not previously received disability support, but hundreds of thousands of people had accessed programs it replaced. These people do not represent and increase in the number of individuals receiving support.

NDIA data shows that NDIS support increases the number of participants in paid work.

Sources: NDIS participant data (see: https://data.ndis.gov.au/explore-data); NDIA media release (see: https://www.ndis.gov.au/news/7105-more- ... orted-ndis); NDIA media release (see: https://www.ndis.gov.au/news/9826-more- ... ta-reveals).

See it here, with the graphs and all:

https://apcentre.substack.com/p/fact-ch ... on-welfare

[Irrev-Black]

I don't have a login for birdsite any more, but some people's contributions show up in my email.

Here is one I found worth sharing.

jeremy poxon
@JeremyPoxon
i remember hearing people from old squatting movements in the 80s/90s say they couldn't do it today because of the changes to centrelink, the creation of mutual obligations. really opened my eyes to how these polices are such vital tools of social control & dissent suppression

[Irrev-Black]

One relevant toon.

jerbs.jpg (56.02 KiB) Viewed 393 times