DSP and dole = only 2.4% of all welfare

Why are we on the DSP or the unemployment benefit being targeted as "unsustainable" when we are costing only 2.4% of all welfare in this country? That's both for the unemployment benefit and the DSP put together. Where the fuck is all the other welfare going then?

This whole attack on us is simply another example of the gov's ideological driven cuts. It has nothing to do with the economy. It has everything to do with the Abbott gov punishing us for being unemployed and/or sick. 

In Australia’s last federal budget, 34.68% (A$138 billion) of the total spend was allocated to social security and welfare programs. Of this, 13.75% ($54.8 billion) went to assistance for the aged, 8.77% ($34.9 billion) went to assisting families with children, while just 2.4% ($9.55 billion) went to assisting the unemployed and sick. 

In terms of welfare spending as a percentage of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), Australia ranks comparatively low compared to other OECD nations at 19.5% in 2013. This ranks behind countries such as France (33%), Sweden (28.6%) and the United Kingdom (23.8%). However, it is true that Australia’s welfare system is relatively efficient. 

Despite doing much better in the recent financial crisis than other OECD countries, Australia is not necessarily a comfortable place to be for many people. 

Australia’s welfare policies provide many examples of why some people are struggling. Sole Parent Allowances and Disability Support Payments have recently been tightened to ensure fewer people can claim them, despite no evidence that this increases workforce participation. People are being transferred to the inadequate Newstart payment. This locks the best part of one million people into penury and covers all those of working age who don’t fit respectable categories of payment. 

These are mean changes, justified as “assisting” recipients to get jobs, but which mainly increase the numbers of forced job seekers for far too few available jobs. As both major parties support such changes, the gaps between haves and have-nots are increasing under the current government directions. more

There's also the thing that even if we were well enough to actually turn up to work on a regular basis, what work would we be able to find?  I note that my previous predictions of a jobs vacancy crisis have come true, as companies "rationalise" and cut back their workforce. My whole dept was outsourced in June 2012. Most companies from what I can see were doing the same "rationalising" thing. I predicted back in June 2012 that unemployment would be rising in Australia as a direct result of these company actions. To me this is more about ideology than reality; our dept was making money, but not "enough" I guess. Gotta make the shareholders happy..... In short, the pressure on jobs vacancies isn't a product of a sick economy, but rather a product of greedy shareholders.

I've spent 30 years in the printing industry. I know nothing else. I am now 52 and HIV+ (amongst a plethora of other health issues). What possible chance would I have of being hired in this physically demanding industry now, even without me being sick. They will hire the younger fitter 25-35 year old over me any day. Even without being sick, what chance do I even have of getting a job?