Medicare, The Education Department and a Real Estate Agent walk into a bar… Small changes equal big trouble on JobSeeker
Just days away from the Federal election, all candidates are campaigning hard. Unfortunately there are gaps in the policies on the table; a big one is the lack of focus on the social safety net and whether it is actually supporting people out of poverty. In today’s analysis, Juanita McLaren (@defrostedlady) shares just how quickly a well-managed budget can be undone, in part by changes to policies in other silos that don’t consider the constrictive budget many families need to live on.
In September last year I had to sign up for Jobseeker (formerly Newstart) again, as the redundancy payment from my May retrenchment had run out. As with many, I also had kids at home due to Melbourne’s ongoing school lockdowns. I was very keen to get another job, but at the same time keeping three teenage boys on top of online learning after literally months and months of home schooling was itself a full-time job.
Still, I kept up with my mutual obligations of 20 job applications a month, re-jigging my CV, writing cover letters and addressing key selection criteria along with the hundreds of others that LinkedIn showed me were applying for the same jobs.
Even with a full reimbursement for emergency dental work, single mothers on JobSeeker don’t have the cash flow to pay up front. Photo by Karolina Grabowska from Pexels
Thankfully a few people had reached out for me to do some short term gigs which kept me afloat, because the weeks I was just receiving JobSeeker, 60% was going to my rent. Helpful people suggested I move to a cheaper area, to a cheaper house. But according to a recent study by Anglicare, it doesn’t matter where I move to - city or country - it’s unaffordable on JobSeeker. For a single mother on Jobseeker, with ONE child over 8, there were nine affordable houses across a snapshot of 45,992 rental listings. Nine.
By the end of January, I was on a financial slippery slope with the inadequate and punitive income support system colliding with back-to-school obligations.
The outpouring of good news stories on the positive impact of the COVID supplement in 2021 is testament to how more money literally changed people’s lives. In a study by research and impact partnership, Poverty and Inequality, led by ACOSS and UNSW, “Poverty among people in sole parent families (both adults and children) was reduced by almost half, from 34% to 19%.”
So of course, the government stopped it.
With the upcoming election, there is a lot of talk about cost of living and housing. As someone with experience of inadequate fixed income, I receive a lot of unsolicited advice on how I can reduce my ‘cost of living’ by cutting back on shopping, riding instead of driving, sewing up a hole in a jumper. I do all these things, but JobSeeker still isn’t adequate enough for me to save a buffer of any kind despite my cut backs.
JobSeeker simply does not allow for any kind of buffer to support incidental essentials, especially single parents who do not have another person’s income supporting their family’s needs or helping with the unpaid labour of running a household. When this overlaps with unexpected emergency expenses, it can be devastating to the carefully-planned budget. Let me give you an example.
The Not Very Funny Day
A few weeks into February this year all these essential incidentals happened in one day when I had $125 left in my account and 6 days until my next JobSeeker payment. Everything seemed to converge, like a worn-out joke missing its punch line.
10am
My eldest had to go to our dentist of ten years for wisdom teeth pain. A year ago, dentists could bulk bill, however policy changes meant my dentist now required the $190 payment up front. This is fully refunded after 5 to 7 days, but on JobSeeker that’s a lifetime away. Even though there are about 8 million health care card holders in Australia eligible for free basic dental services each year at selected surgeries, waiting lists are more than two years long in some states and you have to know where to find the kind dentists who are willing to take these patients.
2pm
My youngest dropped his laptop, destroying the screen. I didn’t have insurance via the school as I had bought the lap-top second-hand from a former student, and it was going to cost $365 for the school IT guys to fix it. We would get it back when they received the payment. There was no financing available from the school for the repair. If I were to buy a new replacement laptop, however, which can only be done through the school due to the deal they have done with a large electronics retailer, I would be able to access financing but only through Latitude, an external money lending group.
These are the options for an inner west government school where scheduling, assignments, permission forms - everything - is done through laptops. Families dependent on JobSeeker were not accounted for in this scenario.
4pm
Late in the afternoon some electricians arrived for the mandatory electricity check that is part of the recent changes to tenancy laws. They tested the light switches, the oven, and changed the smoke detectors. Then they noticed the glass on my stove was cracked. I’d done it a few months ago when I dropped the pestle and mortar. It was in a corner, so as long as I kept it dry I was still using the stove safely. I didn’t have the money to repair it.
One of the electricians clicked his tongue, saying, “This is an electrocution risk. We’re going to have to disconnect your stove.” And that’s what he did. I was forced to call the estate agent to see if she could recommend a repair person - I didn’t know how I was going to afford it but I needed a stove. She sent through a $900 quote, which included replacing the entire stove, and said the repair would be done when the money was in their account.
After a call to the Tenants Union, I learned that the agents were absolutely not allowed to demand money up front to do a repair on an essential appliance, and that it was actually considered a part of normal wear and tear. I offered $450 as a gesture of good will - I was terrified of eviction given that December and January were particularly tight months that saw me pay the rent in small amounts as money came in from Centrelink or on loan from helpful friends. After some very stressful negotiating and educating the agent on the laws of renting, the landlord agreed to my offer.
I then spent 4 weeks using the electric frying pan my aunty gave me for my 21st in 1995 while I waited for the actual replacement.
It was certainly a day of bad luck. I’d racked up $1005 worth of bills in 6 hours. All necessary, all unable to be paid at that time, stress-inducing and all costs of living. None of which took my JobSeeker status into consideration, and none of which my JobSeeker payment would come close to covering.
Despite evidence of more income support dollars benefiting everyone, Services Australia invests in rebranding and more box-ticking
Recently I sat in on an information session on the next incarnation of the Services Australia Employment Services model, due to commence July 1 2022. This is the fourth version of the system since privatisation started in 1998 and has taken four years of consultation to develop. I’m guessing the cost of rebranding in itself would have been enough to Raise the Rate.
As a mandatory service for those who have been on JobSeeker for over six months to ‘support’ them back into work, the new point system requires 100 points per month. This will replace the 20 job applications per month to be eligible for payment. Doing work experience will get you 25 points, seeking support for addiction or rehabilitation will get you 10 points. Is it an improvement? Time will tell, but skeptics are… skeptical.
When researchers asked people who received the Coronavirus Supplement how they used their time differently, the change was dramatic: Healthier food, trips to the doctor and purchasing necessary medications, paying down debt, saving for a rainy day, studying and looking for work. What on this list do politicians object to?
As we approach the federal election, it is important to consider the intersection of all these essential services and JobSeeker, soon to be Workforce Australia, and if your preferred candidate isn’t supporting raising the rate, are they at least supporting access to essential services for those on income support? Even minor policy changes can have devastating impacts on families who are struggling below the poverty line.
Since the Not Very Funny Day, Juanita McLaren has signed up for the New Incentive Enterprise Scheme to formalise the contract and consultant roles that were her stop gaps during her time on JobSeeker. She is currently working on Social Impact and Policy writing and analysis for NFPs and can be found on twitter @defrostedlady.
This post is part of the Women's Policy Action Tank initiative to analyse government policy using a gendered lens. View our other policy analysis pieces here.
The ballot box in our Federal Election series logo is courtesy of Flaticon.
Posted by @SusanMaury