Job seekers ‘missing in action’

Werribee and Hoppers Crossing have ranked among the top-10 Victorian areas where people on unemployment benefits continuously miss job interviews and Work for the Dole appointments.
Figures released by the federal government last week show there were 276 Werribee residents, on a Centrelink unemployment allowance, who missed five or more job interviews, Work for the Dole sessions and other appointments, within a 12-month period.
This made Werribee the third-highest for non-compliance among dole recipients in Victoria, within the timeframe.
Mildura placed first with 329 “missing in action” dole recipients.
Hoppers Crossing placed 10th on the list, with 180 job seekers who did not attend appointments required of them by Centrelink, between October 2015 and September last year.
In the 2017-18 federal budget, the government announced a new welfare compliance system, which included demerit points for dole recipients who continuously fail to turn up to appointments.
A point will be added to their record for every missed appointment and they will be called into Centrelink after four points,to help them get assistance if needed.
If dole recipients have no valid reason for skipping job appointments, they will have their allowance cancelled after seven points.
Minister for Human Services Alan Tudge said while most people on the dole did everything they could to find a job, there are too many who deliberately flouted the system.
“There are clearly suburbs in Australia where there is a concentration of people consistently missing appointments and job interviews and have no excuse for doing so,” he said.
Denis Nelthorpe, the chief executive of West Justice – which provides free legal help to people in the west – said many of the people in Wyndham who did not turn up for Centrelink appointments may have no home or transport.
“Wyndham has an extremely high rate of electrical disconnection and rental eviction, there is a fair chance a significant portion of those people in the statistics are homeless or semi-homeless, for example couch-surfing,” he said