I sleep in the front seat with Finley, my terrier. If the jobseeker rise was permanent I think I could afford to move into a home
As told to Luke Henriques-Gomes: My name is Joey King and I am 52 years old. For nearly two years I have mostly been living in my car and on what [used to be] called Newstart, now the jobseeker payment.
When the coronavirus supplement started last April – adding an extra $550 a fortnight to my payment – it made a big difference.
Continue reading...People over 50 who lose their jobs more likely to suffer long-term joblessness than other age groups
Lisa Griffiths, a 61-year-old special needs nanny, has spent her career easily moving from one contract to the next. So when her last, five-year contract ended recently, she was shocked to find new employment opportunities far more limited than she had expected.
Then, while she was considering her options, the pandemic hit and work dried up altogether.
Continue reading...As I move from the country to the city and start my life as a university student, I’m disheartened by the lack of support from Centrelink
Name: Bethany Castle
Age: 17
So much has happened in such a short time. All of a sudden, it feels as if life is progressing too fast, when only a week ago I was impatiently waiting for my new life in the city to begin.
Continue reading...With university online and no job to go to thanks to Covid, it has become easier to spend hours in front of the mirror berating my appearance
Name: Melis Layik
Age: 21
I increased my dosage of antidepressants today. With the loosening of Victoria’s Covid restrictions and the surge of New Year’s weight loss marketing, my eating disorder has once again overwhelmed me with feelings of inadequacy and self-loathing.
Continue reading...Initiative aimed at shielding young people from economic impact of Covid-19 will provide 750,000 paid placements
Nigeria has launched a much-delayed programme that promises to provide jobs for more than 750,000 young people amid worsening youth unemployment.
The scheme, launched this month, is being hailed by government officials as the largest job creation initiative in the country’s history.
Continue reading...Georgina George and Jamil Mungul credit UK Youth-supported programmes with helping them find a new direction
Georgina George had a tough time at school and struggled for years afterwards to work out what she wanted to do with her life.
Then just before the pandemic hit, it all came together: she discovered a passion for aviation engineering and found a job in the sector that she loved. Shaking off the problems from her past, the 23-year-old began to forge ahead.
Continue reading...The little job security and freedom Noah Gwatkin had has vanished. He is one of a generation of young Australians whose lives are being shaped by Covid
Name: Noah Gwatkin
Age: 18
Continue reading...IPPR North report reveals few signs of government’s levelling up agenda becoming reality
Covid-19 has deepened inequalities between the north and south of England, with little sign of the government’s “levelling up” agenda becoming a reality, a thinktank has warned, in an urgent “wake-up call” to Boris Johnson.
The north is experiencing levels of unemployment not seen since 1994, with areas put under the strictest tier 3 restrictions among the worst affected, IPPR North said in its annual health-check of the economy of the north of England.
Continue reading...Iman Amrani is back with Modern Masculinity, looking at the issues affecting men which relate to mental health in the shadow of Covid-19. In this episode, she returns to Leeds to speak to Neil, a barber who she met in series one, to find out how his business is coping with lockdown, what pressures his employees are facing and how they feel about the future
Covid-19 has already put 3 million young Europeans out of work. The scars for these under-25s could take a decade to heal
A decade ago, the global financial crisis left deep scars in terms of destroyed opportunities and unemployment for young people. In Europe in particular, youth unemployment persisted. Now the Covid-19 crisis threatens to do the same thing to the under-25s. Yet, none of the leaders of France, Italy or Spain, nor the president of the European commission, prioritised youth unemployment in their latest policy speeches. At the highest political level, the focus must be on averting the risk of a lost generation. Bold policies will be needed.
During the financial crisis, the US youth unemployment rate increased from about 10% to 19%, while in the European Union it increased from 16% to 26%. The rate in the EU only returned to its 2008 level in 2018, while the spike in US youth unemployment was overcome more rapidly. Even in the recovery, some EU countries fared much worse than the EU average. In Greece, Spain and Italy, youth unemployment in 2019 was still higher than it was before the 2008 crash.
Continue reading...Victoria reports no new deaths as NSW Health warns of several new Sydney locations linked to Covid-19. Follow all today’s news
NSW says a new cluster of three people is likely linked to an existing cluster. The premier Gladys Berejiklian is also warning that the public will be told of “additional venues, additional locations” to respond to during the day.
The remaining three cases of community transmission are all linked, and that source is being investigated by Health. Health has not ruled out also being able to establish a link between that new cluster of three people and also an existing cluster. It’s also important to note that we anticipate during the day there will be additional venues, additional locations, which we’ll be asking the public to respond to.
We anticipate that because we’ve identified these eight cases, that a number of close contacts and family members could be found to be positive as a result, so it’s really, really important for everybody to stay on high alert, look at the information which Health provides during the course of the day, and please react and make sure you take that advice. If you’re asked to get tested and stay home for 14 days, please make sure you do that.
In NSW, another four cases were recorded from returned travellers.
Of the eight locally-acquired cases, one is under investigation and seven are linked to a known case or cluster. NSW Health said:
One new case reported today was locally acquired, is likely to have been infected some days ago and appears linked to the Liverpool Hospital Dialysis cluster. Four more cases are close contacts of this case.
One new case is locally acquired whose source is under investigation. The remaining two cases today are close contacts of this case.
Testing numbers have dropped recently, which is a concern. NSW Health renews its call for increased testing across Sydney, even if you have the mildest of symptoms like a runny nose or scratchy throat, cough, fever or other symptoms that could be COVID-19.
This is especially important for people across West and South West Sydney with these new cases and after the state’s sewage surveillance program detected fragments of the virus at the North Richmond and West Camden treatment plants.
Continue reading...Josh Frydenberg’s budget relies on tax cuts and business incentives, but rests on some optimistic assumptions. Follow all the reaction and coronavirus news
Meanwhile, once upon a time
I know it is a bit much for her to be morally consistent but. https://t.co/jKpD1iHTu7 https://t.co/UmUUfDSMfe pic.twitter.com/U7WUbxPPXP
High from being retweeted and quoted by Donald Trump, who proved he had learned more about the seriousness of Covid by forcing public employees to drive him around in a sealed vehicle, and then removing his mask for a photo op, Miranda Devine continues to do Australia proud, making even a Fox News host raise an eyebrow
"It's incredibly selfish of older people or neurotic people who are timid & afraid & won't come out of their basements to confine children & young people to miss out on the most important part of their lives" - Fox News is now straight up blaming old & vulnerable people for Covid pic.twitter.com/mLhiwDHmrN
Continue reading...Commonwealth needs to prepare for new argument former human services minister knew scheme was unlawful, court says
A federal court trial set to decide whether robodebt victims are entitled to compensation has been delayed after fresh claims were levelled against government minister Alan Tudge.
The court heard at a pre-trial hearing on Monday that Gordon Legal plans to argue Tudge, who was human services minister in 2016-17, either knew or was “recklessly indifferent” to the fact the botched program was unlawful.
Continue reading...UK should adopt German-style wage support for short-time working, unions say
Rishi Sunak has been urged by union leaders to launch a wage subsidy scheme to prevent a “tsunami” of unemployment when furlough comes to an end this autumn.
Demanding the chancellor follows the examples of other leading European countries to avert a looming jobs crisis, the Trades Union Congress said a continental-style system of “short-time working” wage support could be used in Britain to save millions of jobs from redundancy.
Continue reading...Brisbane watches hotspots after youth detention centre outbreak, Victoria’s hotel inquiry continues and politicians gather in Canberra for the first time in 10 weeks. Follow today’s latest updates
Virtual parliament has so far gone off without a hitch.
Malcolm Roberts has been spotted on a screen - which means that no, he is not in Canberra. No sighting of Pauline Hanson either.
"I'm very proud to be the first senator to be using our remote facilities as the chamber finally enters the 21st century."
Greens Senator @larissawaters @SBSNews #auspol pic.twitter.com/XSV41x91WQ
The ACT has reported no new cases of Covid in the last 24 hours.
Continue reading...GDP falls 20.4% – the worst of any G7 nation in the three months to June
Britain has entered the deepest recession since records began as official figures on Wednesday showed the economy shrank by more than any other major nation during the coronavirus outbreak in the three months to June.
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said gross domestic product (GDP), the broadest measure of economic prosperity, fell in the second quarter by 20.4% compared with the previous three months – the biggest quarterly decline since comparable records began in 1955.
Continue reading...New graduates and school leavers across the UK have paid the price of lockdown, says survey
Young people across Britain believe their future has been “stolen” as a result of the coronavirus outbreak, with more than half fearing it has damaged their prospects.
Amid growing evidence that the pandemic is fuelling a generational divide, two thirds of 16- to 24-year-olds also said that their age group, loosely defined as ‘Generation Z’ will pay the economic price for a disease that has mostly affected older people, according to a survey by the Hope not Hate charitable trust, an anti-racism group.
Continue reading...The White House chief of staff, Mark Meadows, and treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin were on Capitol Hill on Saturday, for talks with aides to Senate Republicans over the next coronavirus relief package.
Related: 'Nobody’s ever seen anything like this': how coronavirus turned the US election upside down
Continue reading...Reductions to the coronavirus supplements will start from 28 September and include tighter eligibility requirements
The Morrison government will reduce the level of income support paid out under the jobkeeper and jobseeker payments from 28 September, and create two payment tiers for the wage subsidy to ensure the rate aligns more closely with people’s pre-Covid income, rather than giving part-timers and casuals a pay rise.
The overhaul will be unveiled by Scott Morrison and Josh Frydenberg on Tuesday ahead of an economic statement the government will deliver on Thursday. As well as lowering the rate of both the jobkeeper wage subsidy and the $550 coronavirus supplement in jobseeker after September, the government will tighten the eligibility requirements for both payments – including retesting businesses in October.
Continue reading...Chief scientific adviser gives evidence to science and technology committee; Scotland records first Covid-related death in eight days
Vallance told the committee that SAGE advised the government to impose lockdown measures “as soon as possible” on the 16 or 18 March.
He said this happened as soon as data showed further restrictions were needed. “Looking back, you can see the data may have preceded that but the data was not available before that.”
Back to the Science and Technology committee, where chief scientific adviser has said the coronavirus lockdown “carries risks” to the public’s mental and physical health.
He told the committee it was “crucially important” that the indirect impact of the measures on people’s health were fully understood.
Continue reading...