ANCAPS

JOB SEEKERS who fail to show up for training or education programs will have their payments docked for each day missed as part of a new plan to get the long-term unemployed back to work.

The most radical shake up of the unemployment system in a decade will all but scrap a penalty system that cut off people's benefits for eight weeks if they failed three times to meet the conditions of those payments, such as attending training or accepting jobs.

Instead, people who cannot give a good explanation of why they did not meet their obligations will have the equivalent of a day's benefit docked for a day missed, under a new "no show, no pay" system the Government says is more akin to the work environment.

The Minister for Workforce Participation, Brendan O'Connor, said the changes recognised that a booming economy had allowed fewer skilled people to fall between the cracks of society.

The old system did not promote a "work culture, and that's a failure", he said.

Some people had even been left homeless as a result of the eight-week suspension period introduced in 2005 that cut off people's welfare payments if they thrice failed to meet the conditions of their payments, such as attending job interviews.

A discussion paper on the future of the privatised Job Network, to be released today, says the people still unemployed need more training and education to make them ready to work.

From July 1 next year job hunters will be put into one of four streams depending on their level of education, skills and work history.

Job agencies will be paid fees for finding jobs for the long-term unemployed and other disadvantaged job seekers.

In Tuesday night's budget the Government announced it would pour $3.7 billion into getting unemployed people to work.

As part of this, 238,000 new training places will be created in areas of skills shortages at a cost of $880 million over five years.

The change comes after years of lobbying by welfare groups and job agencies who argued the unemployment system did not recognise that people needed assistance to help prepare them for work and failed to accommodate the special needs of people with disabilities.

Since 1999 the number of people who have been receiving unemployment benefits for five years or more has jumped from 10 per cent of unemployed people to 25 per cent.

Introducing the work paper, Mr O'Connor wrote: "Today the problem is not simply finding a job, it is finding employers appropriately skilled labour. Our employment services system must do much more to connect those who can work with the vacancies employers need to fill."

Welfare groups have applauded a more compassionate approach, saying the eight-week suspension period forced people into hardship and gave them no incentive or help to find work.

LNK
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