The employment services system is in dire need of reform. Unfortunately, we’re unlikely to see change any time soonBack in 1998, the Commonwealth Employment Service was axed, and the task of helping jobseekers find work was outsourced to private companies who could charge the Government for every person that they placed into work. In the years since, the system has become worse and worse as the ‘Robodebt’ scandal revealed.
Towards the end of last year, the House of Representatives Select Committee on Workforce Australia Employment Services released its final report on the current state of the employment services system. The Australian Government has now released its lacklustre and non-committal response.
It is disappointing, though not entirely surprising, that the Government didn’t take this opportunity to give people some relief from the relentless burden of so-called ‘mutual obligations’. Instead, the response simply agreed “that reform is necessary” without offering much of a vision of what that reform would look like.
The current state of employment services
Over the past three decades, Australia’s employment services sector has been slowly privatised, with private job service providers receiving contracts from the Australian Government to assist unemployed and underemployed people to find work. From 2022-2023, these private job service providers were forced to pay back $8.5 million in faulty claims to the Government.
In its current form, the employment services system requires people looking for work to satisfy ‘mutual obligations’. These obligations can include regularly meeting with a private job service provider, applying for up to 20 jobs a month and participating in various study and skills programs.
This system punishes people who do not comply with the requirements by suspending their payments. By the end of last year, when the latest version of employment services had been running for just 16 months, two million income support payments had been suspended, leaving many people unable to pay bills or rent, buy groceries or pay for medication.
Employment Services report
The House of Representatives Select Committee on Workforce Australia Employment Services received over 300 submissions and more than 60 hours of witness testimony. Many of these contributions, especially those from people who have suffered through the employment services system, advocated for a total redesign of the system from the ground up.
One of the major issues identified in these submissions was the mutual obligations requirement of some income support payments. This requirement means that recipients of the JobSeeker, Youth Allowance and Parenting payments must undertake certain activities to remain eligible for these payments.
Mounting evidence shows that mutual obligations do nothing to help people find work and instead act solely to punish unemployed and underemployed people with meaningless busywork. Not only is this unnecessary and ineffective, but it can also have severe impacts on the mental health of payment recipients. This has led many groups to call for the requirement to be abolished entirely.
Everyone, including people receiving income support payments, deserves to be treated with dignity and respect. Yet the mutual obligations requirement belittles and demeans unemployed and underemployed people by forcing them to jump through hoops to receive support.
From April 2020 to April 2021, the Australian Government suspended mutual obligations and substantially raised the rate of the JobSeeker Payment in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. A survey conducted by researchers from Swinburne University of Technology, Australian National University and Monash University during this period found that people had an easier time finding work and improving their employment prospects when they were not hounded by mutual obligation requirements. Respondents were also more able to care for members of their family during this period.
The Committee recognised that the system of mutual obligations does more harm than good, but instead of using this evidence to argue for mutual obligations to be abolished and for payment recipients to be treated like human beings, it argued that these “requirements be broadened and tailored to individuals”.
The Australian Government’s response
The Australian Government’s response to the Committee’s report had very little substance. It agreed that mutual obligations need reform, but failed to suspend the current requirements until a better system is put in place. It agreed that many job service providers were failing to assist people looking for work, but made no mention of cancelling contracts for unsatisfactory providers.
While the Government has said that it will work to reform the employment services system, it has not yet provided any details on what will change. CPSA will continue to report on any changes as they occur.
Back in 1998, the Commonwealth Employment Service was axed, and the task of helping jobseekers find work was outsourced to private companies who could charge the Government for every person that they placed into work. In the years since, the system has become worse and worse as the ‘Robodebt’ scandal revealed.
Towards the end of last year, the House of Representatives Select Committee on Workforce Australia Employment Services released its final report on the current state of the employment services system. The Australian Government has now released its lacklustre and non-committal response.
It is disappointing, though not entirely surprising, that the Government didn’t take this opportunity to give people some relief from the relentless burden of so-called ‘mutual obligations’. Instead, the response simply agreed “that reform is necessary” without offering much of a vision of what that reform would look like.
The current state of employment services
Over the past three decades, Australia’s employment services sector has been slowly privatised, with private job service providers receiving contracts from the Australian Government to assist unemployed and underemployed people to find work. From 2022-2023, these private job service providers were forced to pay back $8.5 million in faulty claims to the Government.
In its current form, the employment services system requires people looking for work to satisfy ‘mutual obligations’. These obligations can include regularly meeting with a private job service provider, applying for up to 20 jobs a month and participating in various study and skills programs.
This system punishes people who do not comply with the requirements by suspending their payments. By the end of last year, when the latest version of employment services had been running for just 16 months, two million income support payments had been suspended, leaving many people unable to pay bills or rent, buy groceries or pay for medication.
Employment Services report
The House of Representatives Select Committee on Workforce Australia Employment Services received over 300 submissions and more than 60 hours of witness testimony. Many of these contributions, especially those from people who have suffered through the employment services system, advocated for a total redesign of the system from the ground up.
One of the major issues identified in these submissions was the mutual obligations requirement of some income support payments. This requirement means that recipients of the JobSeeker, Youth Allowance and Parenting payments must undertake certain activities to remain eligible for these payments.
Mounting evidence shows that mutual obligations do nothing to help people find work and instead act solely to punish unemployed and underemployed people with meaningless busywork. Not only is this unnecessary and ineffective, but it can also have severe impacts on the mental health of payment recipients. This has led many groups to call for the requirement to be abolished entirely.
Everyone, including people receiving income support payments, deserves to be treated with dignity and respect. Yet the mutual obligations requirement belittles and demeans unemployed and underemployed people by forcing them to jump through hoops to receive support.
From April 2020 to April 2021, the Australian Government suspended mutual obligations and substantially raised the rate of the JobSeeker Payment in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. A survey conducted by researchers from Swinburne University of Technology, Australian National University and Monash University during this period found that people had an easier time finding work and improving their employment prospects when they were not hounded by mutual obligation requirements. Respondents were also more able to care for members of their family during this period.
The Committee recognised that the system of mutual obligations does more harm than good, but instead of using this evidence to argue for mutual obligations to be abolished and for payment recipients to be treated like human beings, it argued that these “requirements be broadened and tailored to individuals”.
The Australian Government’s response
The Australian Government’s response to the Committee’s report had very little substance. It agreed that mutual obligations need reform, but failed to suspend the current requirements until a better system is put in place. It agreed that many job service providers were failing to assist people looking for work, but made no mention of cancelling contracts for unsatisfactory providers.
While the Government has said that it will work to reform the employment services system, it has not yet provided any details on what will change. CPSA will continue to report on any changes as they occur.
