Category Archives: Welfare

Battle over two-child benefit cap looms at Labour policy event

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Keir Starmer will face discontent from unions and MPs at the National Policy Forum in Nottingham

Keir Starmer faces battles over the two-child benefit cap and other flashpoints at a key Labour policy gathering this weekend where trade union delegates will cite new evidence of the mounting cost of living crisis facing their members.

Discontent at all levels of the party over his resistance to pledging to scrap the cap if Labour wins power forms the backdrop to potentially stormy negotiations behind closed doors at the National Policy Forum (NPF).

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Jeremy Corbyn says Labour MPs are ‘seething with anger’ about Keir Starmer’s stance on the two-child benefit cap – UK politics live

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Former Labour leader says ‘even the Blair government’ helped lift children out of poverty

Labour MPs are “seething with anger” about Keir Starmer’s decision to say the party would not get rid of the two-child benefit cap, Jeremy Corbyn said this morning.

Corbyn, Starmer’s predecessor as leader, told LBC that he had spoken to “quite a lot of Labour MPs” about this issue. He went on:

They are seething with anger, particularly as commitments have been made regularly by the party that we would take children out of poverty. Even the Blair government, which Keir Starmer often quotes, did do a great deal to lift children out of poverty by not having a two-child policy …

Even in areas like mine, there are high levels of child poverty – probably 40% of the children in my constituency. All across the north-east, which Jamie [Driscoll] represents – a third of all children across the whole of the region are living in poverty. That has got to go and got to change.

This is not a shock – it is what I and my team expected.

None of my fellow Bernie Grant leadership programme alumni have been selected.

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Labour would keep two-child benefit cap, says Keir Starmer

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Leader says party in power will stick with Tory policy seen as driving low-income families into deeper poverty

Keir Starmer has confirmed that a Labour government would keep the Conservatives’ controversial two-child benefits cap, despite unease among his top team and leading academics over the policy, which has been blamed for pushing families into poverty.

Starmer said on Sunday that he was “not changing that policy”, when asked if he would scrap it if Labour wins the next election. His shadow work and pensions secretary, Jonathan Ashworth, had condemned it as “heinous” just last month.

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Seven public servants criticised in robodebt report as agencies consider response

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Royal commissioner Catherine Holmes found that bureaucrats misled cabinet and ombudsman

At least seven public servants including the former Department of Human Services secretaries Kathryn Campbell and Renée Leon are the subject of adverse findings in the robodebt royal commission report released last week.

The commissioner, Catherine Holmes, found that public servants had engaged in conduct including misleading cabinet that legislation was not required for the unlawful scheme, and misleading the commonwealth ombudsman.

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Early robodebt critics outraged by how long Coalition persisted with unlawful scheme

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Shocking to learn politicians and public servants ‘were basically just lying to us’, Andrew Wilkie says

Early critics of robodebt have said they are shocked, appalled and outraged by how long the Coalition government persisted with the unlawful scheme.

The independent MP Andrew Wilkie and former the administrative appeals tribunal member Terry Carney were responding to the release of the royal commission report on Friday.

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Keating calls Nato head a ‘supreme fool’ over plan to open office in Asia – as it happened

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Racist throwback to Jim Crow days in America

Burney says the advert that ran in the Financial Review encouraging a “no” vote on the referendum over the Indigenous voice to parliament was “totally unacceptable”.

I think Matt Kean, the Shadow Health Minister in New South Wales, really nailed it, David, where he likened it to a racist throwback from the Jim Crow days in America, but it was also incredibly sexist and it is something in the words of Matt Kean, the ‘no‘camp has every right to have a say, but there are better ways of doing it.

I know Aboriginal Australia and I know that people know what the important issues - things like what I’ve identified - education, health, housing, jobs - and Josie Douglas who is this remarkable Aboriginal woman in the central land council put it perfectly: We are about changing lives, not changing dates.

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Kathryn Campbell retaining Aukus role would be ‘insult’ to robodebt victims, crossbenchers say

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Former head of the Department of Human Services faces calls to resign after royal commission findings

Crossbench MPs have called on the senior public servant Kathryn Campbell to consider resigning after the robodebt royal commission, claiming it would be “an insult” to the victims if she retains her Aukus role.

The royal commission report tabled in parliament on Friday said Campbell, a former head of the Department of Human Services, had been “responsible for a department that had established, implemented and maintained an unlawful program”.

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PwC to repay $800,000 for work on robodebt after damning royal commission report

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Embattled consulting firm also reveals it no longer employs partner involved in work on the scheme for the Department of Human Services

The consulting firm PwC will repay more than $800,000 it pocketed for work it completed on the robodebt scheme and has confirmed a partner involved in the work is no longer employed by the embattled company.

The firm’s acting CEO, Kristin Stubbins, confirmed that it would repay the $853,859 it was paid by the Department of Human Services to review the scheme.

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Peter Dutton concedes individuals made ‘mistakes’ on robodebt but warns against ‘trial by media’

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Opposition leader accuses Labor of politicising the royal commission findings and calls Bill Shorten a ‘political animal’

Peter Dutton has conceded that “mistakes” were made by “individuals” involved in the unlawful robodebt scheme, while warning against a “trial by media” on the findings of the royal commission.

At the Liberal National party’s state conference in Brisbane on Saturday, the federal opposition leader accused Labor of politicising the issue and referred to the government services minister, Bill Shorten, as a “political animal”.

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Scott Morrison rejects robodebt royal commission findings but won’t say if he was referred for prosecution

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Anthony Albanese highlights commission’s ‘extraordinary’ conclusion that former PM’s evidence was ‘untrue’

Scott Morrison has rejected the robodebt royal commission’s findings but not said whether he has been referred for further civil or criminal actions, in contrast to claims from former Coalition ministers Christian Porter, Alan Tudge and Stuart Robert ruling themselves out.

In a statement on Friday, the former prime minister said he “completely” rejects adverse findings, claiming they were “wrong, unsubstantiated and contradicted by clear documentary evidence presented to the commission”.

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‘Crude and cruel’ scheme: robodebt royal commission report recommends civil and criminal prosecutions

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Recommendation of referrals included in ‘sealed chapter’ of 1,000-page report with findings handed to federal government and released publicly

The “crude and cruel” robodebt scheme has resulted in a recommendation that unnamed individuals be referred for civil and criminal prosecutions, the royal commission has revealed.

The commissioner, Catherine Holmes, submitted her report to the government on Friday and revealed it contained a “sealed chapter” that recommended referrals of individuals for what it labelled a “costly failure of public administration”. The report said robodebt was “neither fair nor legal”.

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The robodebt royal commission revealed the worst of ‘welfare cop’ politics. But what happens next is up to us all

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Catherine Holmes’ report is damning for the Coalition and the public service, yet the reckoning she advocates will take more than policy change

Robodebt royal commissioner Catherine Holmes’ report is damning for the Coalition and former ministers, including Scott Morrison, Alan Tudge and Stuart Robert.

And it is disastrous for the public service – certain individuals within it and the entity as a whole; or what some might call the bureaucracy’s soul, if such a thing can exist.

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Robodebt royal commission report handed down – as it happened

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Bill Shorten: robodebt commission report will be a ‘vindication’ for victims and their families

The NDIS minister, Bill Shorten, says today “is a vindication” for victims of the robodebt scandal with the royal commission report being handed down. He told ABC’s RN this morning:

The heart of this story today is the fact that real people unlawfully had debt notices … raised against them by the most powerful institution in Australia, the commonwealth government.

Two of these people, after receiving robodebt notices, subsequently took their own lives that I’m aware of.

Today is not the day [their mothers] want. What they really want is their sons to be alive.

One of the challenges we’re seeing across the country is great teacher shortages … COVID brought that timetable forward.

Classrooms are more complex, there is a great diversity of needs across the classroom, and as society changes a lot of teachers and education ministers are testifying about the impact of technology in classrooms.

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Benefits claimants in UK were underpaid by record £3.3bn last year

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National Audit Office criticises Department for Work and Pensions over its ‘material fraud and error’

Thousands of people in the UK could receive a payout after official figures revealed that benefit claimants were underpaid by £3.3bn last year, the highest level on record.

The Department for Work and Pensions also admitted that as many as 330,000 people, some of whom have since died, may have missed out on as much as £1.5bn of valuable state pension entitlement – a disclosure that prompted some commentators to warn of a new scandal. Steve Webb, the former pensions minister, said: “The scale of these errors is huge.”

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Labor announces $2bn for ‘thousands’ of new social rental homes and passes motion to make housing a human right

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Prime minister Anthony Albanese also lambasts Greens over Senate stalemate, saying they are ‘happy to promise the world, while organising a petition against every new apartment building’

The federal government has announced it will give $2bn to state and territory governments within weeks for a social housing accelerator fund as part of a last-ditch effort to convince the Greens to not sink Labor’s signature housing policy in the Senate.

“This is new money – right now – for new social housing,” the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, said as he announced the funding at Victorian Labor’s state conference on Saturday.

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Data reveals significant drop in proportion of specialist appointments funded by Medicare

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Patient advocates say more needs to be done to reduce out-of-pocket costs and improve the health literacy of Australians

The level of Medicare coverage for specialist medical appointments has fallen steadily and significantly over the past two decades and is well below that of GP visits, data shows, prompting calls for reform from patient advocates.

Medicare data published on Thursday by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) reveals that the proportion of subsidised fees varies widely depending on the type of appointment.

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Labor urged to bring forward single parenting payment changes or ‘have kids going hungry’

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Greens senator says it is ‘heartless’ not to make an interim provision for 8,140 families until eligibility extends in September

The Australian government is under pressure to bring forward the start date for one of its key welfare budget measures to prevent more than 8,000 single parents falling into further poverty during the waiting period.

Expanding the eligibility for the single parenting payment was one of Labor’s flagship announcements in this year’s budget. The payment currently expires when the youngest child of a single parent turns eight, with the parent moving on to jobseeker, which is worth $204 less per fortnight than the parenting payment.

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Australian jobseekers told to use ChatGPT to apply for jobs and shown irrelevant videos

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Exclusive: A taxpayer-funded online employability course that included videos on body language contained ‘not curriculum-endorsed materials’

A taxpayer-funded employability course is under fire after jobseekers complained that much of the compulsory training involved being shown irrelevant, inappropriate and, at-times, bizarre YouTube videos.

Under contracts signed by the Coalition last year, the federal government will pay private providers about $300m over five years to run Employability Skills Training (EST) courses as part of the commonwealth’s $7bn Workforce Australia program.

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Labor’s cashless welfare bill criticised as disproportionately affecting First Nations people

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Critics claim the bill could see government further expand income management policies

Indigenous organisations and welfare advocates have blasted a government bill they say cements controversial cashless welfare policies that disproportionately affect First Nations people.

Labor abolished the cashless debit card that operated in several trial sites but has kept income management in the Northern Territory, where about 20,000 mostly Indigenous welfare recipients are forced on to the “basics card”.

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Labor leaves door open for jobseeker recipients to work more hours before losing payments

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Treasurer says government won’t rule out adopting Peter Dutton’s proposal for social security recipients to be able to earn more before being penalised

The Albanese government has kept open the option of taking up the opposition’s proposal to increase the hours jobseekers can work before losing their payments.

The treasurer, Jim Chalmers, declined to rule out adopting the idea, saying the government was “always looking for ways to make it easier for people to participate in work”.

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