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CANBERRA - Up to 80,000 long-term unemployed people will be forced to work fulltime for the dole under changes to the Australian Government's Welfare to Work programme.
The fulltime work for the dole programme, introduced in July last year, requires participants to work 25 hours a week for 10 months of the year.
At present, people classified as long-term unemployed, those who have been unemployed for two or more years, are only referred to the programme if they deliberately avoid their commitment to find work.
Under changes announced on Sunday, however, people will be automatically placed in the fulltime work for the dole programme once they have completed two rounds of an intensive job-seeking workshop and still have not found work.
Workforce Participation Minister Sharman Stone said 80,000 people classified as long-term unemployed in the current labour market was unacceptable.
"Early data shows 30 per cent of job seekers who do fulltime work for the dole either go on to a part-time job or leave income support completely, compared to only 14 per cent of similar job seekers who did not do fulltime work for the dole," Dr Stone said.
"With a 33-year-low unemployment rate of 4.2 per cent and almost 310,000 jobs created in the last year alone, there has never been a better time for the long-term unemployed to break the cycle of welfare dependency and get a job."
There are about 4000 people participating in the fulltime work for the dole programme.
- AAP
