For jobseekers these days, staying on benefits is about accumulating points.
Author
- Simone Casey
Research Associate, Centre for People, Organisation and Work, RMIT University
It used to be cruder. Until 2022, unemployed Australians who wanted to stay on benefits had to apply for up to 20 jobs per month, a requirement a parliamentary inquiry found
burdens employers, who are receiving masses of poor quality applications often from people who are not suited for the position.
Since July 2022, jobseekers have instead been required to collect points .
Creating or updating a profile earns five points, applying for a job earns five points, attending a job interview earns 25 points, attending a jobs expo earns 25 points, starting a job earns 50 points, and so on.
For most jobseekers the target is 100 points per month. The target can be eased by 20 points for jobseekers who live in locations that have fewer opportunities to work and by 40 points for jobseekers who are carers, have a reduced capacity to work or who are over 55.
Jobseekers who fail to report enough points or who fail to include four job applications per month in total face automatic suspension of benefits.
41% of jobseekers are being failed
New data released by the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations show 41.1% of participants are being tripped up by the system.
In the quarter between April 1 and June 30, 410,485 of the 999,470 jobseekers enrolled in the scheme failed to meet its requirements. And 212,915 of them reported no points whatsoever.
It's an improvement on the previous year. For April to June 2023, 45.3% of participants failed to get enough points.
First Nations people, refugees, people with disabilities and young people are over-represented among those who fail to get enough points.
My calculations using the department's data show 58% of Indigenous participants in the program, 49% of participants without a Year 12 education and 47% of participants on youth allowance are failing to meet the requirements.
Around two-thirds of breaches lead to suspensions. Between July 2022 and September 2023 1,838,410 payments were suspended.
My research just published in the Australian Journal of Social Issues finds that a shift away from face-to-face help to online interactions is partly responsible.
When jobseekers find it difficult to talk to humans about why they are unable to accumulate points their payments are more likely to be suspended.
Jobseekers' fault or the system's fault?
The Department of Employment has been working hard to increase understanding of the points system. Among other things, it has produced a series of fact sheets aimed at First Nations Australians .
But an independent evaluation of the system prepared for the department in June found two-thirds of the participants in it had little or no knowledge about how it worked.
This suggests the 41% failure rate might be an indictment of the system as much as the jobseekers who use it.
It might even be an indictment of the idea of points to quantify compliance with mutual obligations.
In November last year, a Senate select committee recommended rebuilding what it called a Commonwealth Employment Services System from the ground up.
While the committee supported the use of points, it wanted the default requirement halved to 50 points, with human case managers given discretion to vary the target up or down based on their professional judgments.
Simone Casey is employed as a policy advisor at Economic Justice Australia, the peak organisation for community legal centres providing specialist advice to people on their social security issues and rights. The research and analysis for this article was completed in her academic capacity as recently published in the Australian Journal of Social Issues.
