Private job providers can claim public money when jobseekers find work. But they need their payslips to do so, and some resort to extreme methods to get them
Centrelink jobseeker payments suspended more than 450,000 times in three months
Exclusive: New figures reveal mutual obligations system responsible for the vast majority of welfare suspensions
>Centrelink Caller Enquiring About Youth Allowance Qualifies for Aged Pension While on Hold
>A Brisbane woman who rang Centrelink to enquire about a youth allowance 52 years ago has finally had her phone call answered and is now eligible for the aged person.
>Audrey Smythe, now aged 76, says she is overjoyed with the news that she’s eligible to apply for the $1096.70 a fortnight aged pension, instead of the $602.80 payments she would have received on Newstart when she started her call almost four decades ago.
>“That’s more than $30 over the poverty line, so I guess you could say that spending the remainder of my youth navigating phone prompts in search of Centrelink’s five remaining staff members has finally paid off,” Ms Smythe said.
>While she admits being on the phone during critical life events including her children’s births and graduations was frustrating, she says the soothing tones of Mozart’s Divertimento in F major have helped her through many of life’s trials.
>“If nothing else, this experience has taught me that there’s nothing a continuous loop of one classical song and 52 years of waiting can’t fix,” she says.
>There are concerns, however, about whether Ms Smythe will see any money within her lifetime, as the Centrelink staffer who took her call said that now she was eligible for the aged pension, she would have to dial another number to lodge a new claim.
A newly unemployed middle-aged woman has bravely spoken out on Centrelink’s outdated, punitive system after recently applying for unemployment benefits.
“This system is awful! I can’t believe how hard it is to even sign up, it’s like we don’t want to give any help to unemployed people!” she lamented.
The former public servant, Kathryn Campbell, appeared today outside the Bondi Junction office to proclaim the government needed to change the way it views job seekers.
Payslip wars: Australian jobseekers suffer harassment in ‘a crazy system that doesn’t work for anyone’ (www.theguardian.com)
Private job providers can claim public money when jobseekers find work. But they need their payslips to do so, and some resort to extreme methods to get them