The Wire

On Thurday last week the Senate inquiry into the governments proposed ‘Welfare to Work Bill’ began its hearings. Under the Bill people with disabilities who are assessed as being able to work part-time will no longer be able to get the Disability Support Pension and single parents will no longer be able to get the Parenting Payment once their youngest child truns eight. Instead, these pensioners will be forced onto the Newstart allowance and required to look for work. The government has claimed that the Bill is an imporant step towards encouraging people who are currently dependent on pension payments to participate in the workforce. However, welfare groups have questioned whether the Bill will significantly increase workplace participation and have suggested that the net effect of the reforms may be to leave hundreds of thousands of welfare recipients worse off. In its submission to the senate inquiry the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations claimed that the 200,000 people expected to move onto Newstart from their pension payments would benefit from the new welfare arrangements. Frank Quinlan, Executive Director of Catholic Welfare Australia, spoke with Tristan Burt about why welfare groups oppose that claim.