AUWU calls on Frydenberg to reject unemployment insurance proposal
Our welfare system must not divide unemployed people into the "deserving and undeserving" poor
The Australian Unemployed Workers’ Union calls on treasurer Josh Frydenberg to reject any unemployment insurance proposal.
Toying with an inequitable scheme that creates an underclass of longer-term unemployed people will further disadvantage those who already face the greatest barriers to employment.
It’s not only callous and unfair, it’s stupid.
Under this proposal most of the people who lost their job because of a pandemic would’ve run out of their “insurance” 5 months ago – in the middle of a recession.
It’s an impractical scheme that fails to account for the fact that hundreds of thousands of people currently in the welfare system have a job, and yet still rely on unemployment payments due to the proliferation of low-hours, low-pay work.
A solution that leaves some people below the poverty line is no solution at all.
The $9 billion cost of the proposed program would be close to what’s need to keep everyone on JobSeeker out of poverty, compared to the current amount, which is 60% of the poverty line.
We again call upon the government to reinstate the $550 and make this permanent, to bring the rate of unemployment payments up to the poverty line of $80 a day.
Media contact: 0413 261 362 / media at auwu.org.au
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