Annual Report 2003-04 I volume 1
Output Group 3.1 I Labour market assistance
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Output Group 3.1 I Labour market assistanceContribution to Outcome 3Labour market assistance contributes to Outcome 3 by providing income support and related programs for people of workforce age who, generally because of unemployment or parenting responsibilities, are in need of financial support. These programs: provide an effective safety net foster a culture of self-reliance in the community encourage and facilitate participation in paid work or activities designed to improve employment prospects maximise economic and social participation, while recognising that, for some people, caring responsibilities, disabilities, time out of the workforce or other barriers mean that levels and types of participation need to be flexible support parents who have primary caring responsibilities for children under 16. Strategiestarget income support payments to people most in need, including through income and assets tests and waiting-period provisions provide incentives and assistance, such as Employment Entry Payment and Working Credit, for customers to seek and take up available work encourage and promote participation among income support customers, including through the Personal Support Programme; Personal Advisers; specialist disability employment services; rehabilitation services; the Jobs, Education and Training Program; and the provision of participation supplements develop policies aimed at supporting parents and mature-aged customers who wish to participate in the labour market undertake research and analysis to help understand customers, their circumstances, needs and aspirations. Outputs under Output Group 3.1Labour market assistance-assistance for people of workforce ageBereavement Allowance (BA)Bereavement Allowance is paid for up to 14 weeks to a recently widowed person without dependent children following the death of their partner. It is subject to an income and assets test. It is also paid under international social security agreements. Mature Age Allowance (MAA)Mature Age Allowance provides income support to jobless people aged 60 years to Age Pension age who have been receiving other income support and face obstacles to employment because of a lack of recent workforce experience. This payment closed to new claimants 20 September 2003. People who would previously have been eligible for MAA can now access Newstart Allowance. Newstart Allowance (NSA)Newstart Allowance provides income support for people between 21 years and Age Pension age who are unemployed. Recipients must satisfy the activity test by seeking work or undertaking an activity designed to improve their employment prospects. They must accept offers of suitable employment. Parenting Payment (Partnered and Single)Parenting Payment provides income support to low-income people with primary care of at least one dependent child under 16 years of age. Parenting Payment (Single) (PPS) is payable to sole parents. Parenting Payment (Partnered) (PPP) is payable to low-income partnered parents. PPS is also paid under international social security agreements. Partner Allowance (PA)Partner Allowance provides income support to mature-age people who are partners of income support recipients and face obstacles to employment due to a lack of recent workforce experience. This payment closed to new claimants on 20 September 2003. People who would previously have been eligible for PA can now access Newstart Allowance. Pensioner Education Supplement (PES)The Pensioner Education Supplement is a fortnightly payment to certain income support recipients, mainly Parenting Payment (Single) and Disability Support Pension recipients, undertaking approved full-time or part-time study. Special Benefit (SpB)Special Benefit provides assistance to people in severe financial need and for whom no other pension, allowance or other support is available. Widow Allowance (WA)Widow Allowance provides income support for older working-age women who no longer have a partner and who have no recent workforce experience. Supplementary labour market assistance paymentsEducation Entry PaymentEducation Entry Payment is a lump sum, available annually, to assist with the cost of beginning approved study. It is available to customers who qualify for the Pensioner Education Supplement. Allowees who have received income support for at least 12 months may also be eligible. Employment Entry PaymentEmployment Entry Payment is a lump sum, available annually, to assist with the cost of beginning employment. It is available to certain working-age customers who have received income support for at least 12 months and meet other criteria. Parenting Payment (Single) customers are not subject to the 12-month waiting period. Language, Literacy and Numeracy SupplementThe supplement is intended to assist people on eligible income support payments with the additional costs associated with participation in the Language, Literacy and Numeracy program. Work for the Dole SupplementThe Work for the Dole Supplement is a fortnightly supplement payment to assist with the cost of participating in the Work for the Dole program. Community Development Employment Project Participant SupplementThis supplement is a fortnightly supplement payment to assist with the cost of participating in a Community Development Employment Project. Jobs, Education and TrainingJobs, Education and Training Advisers provide help to eligible customers to improve their financial circumstances. They support parents, carers and some others to develop participation plans with a focus on an eventual employment outcome. Payment to voluntary work agencies (Voluntary Work Initiative including AWT Participation through Volunteering)The payment enables agencies to help unemployed people find voluntary work. Volunteering Australia administers a national volunteer referral placement and training service for working-age income support customers. Personal Support Programme (PSP)PSP provides assistance to people with multiple non-vocational barriers to employment. It serves as a bridge between short-term crisis assistance and employment-related assistance. Welfare Reform Consultative ForumThe Welfare Reform Consultative Forum provides advice to the Australian Government on the operation of Australia’s welfare system and the development of the medium- to longer-term agenda for welfare reform, including approaches to reduce reliance on government benefits, promote participation activities and increase financial incentives to engage in paid employment. Performance summaryKey achievements included:successful implementation and performance of a range of Australians Working Together measures, including: implementation of Working Credit on 20 September 2003, including implementation of electronic employer reporting of earnings of workers in business services. Working Credit is available to over 2 million income support customers. Since its introduction, nearly 540 000 individuals have used their working credits. closure of Mature Age Allowance and Partner Allowance to new claimants from 20 September 2003, and introduction of more flexible participation arrangements for older Newstart Allowees introduction of participation requirements for Parenting Payment recipients with older children delivering the second year of assistance through the Personal Support Programme, enabling support of approximately 40 185 individuals in 2003-04 through 148 service providers and exceeding target participant numbers by over 5000 for the year introduction of Personal Advisers. In the first 18 months (September 2002 to April 2004), Personal Advisers interviewed more than 250 000 Centrelink customers, prepared participation plans with 98 per cent of these customers and referred over 130 000 customers to Australian Government-funded programs, education and training vocational rehabilitation programs with Commonwealth Rehabilitation Service Australia undertaken by 41 354 people in 2003-04, with over 8000 achieving an employment outcome implementation of a Budget measure on enhanced profiling of Parenting Payment customers development of a support package for victims of trafficking of persons implementation of the Parenting Payment pilot in combination with Centrelink and the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations. The pilot aims to improve referral of parents to Job Network and other appropriate support services to help parents overcome barriers to joining the labour market. development of the data set and fieldwork for the Parents on Low Income Study (POLIS) project under an Australian Research Council agreement with the Australian Institute of Family Studies and the Australian National University. POLIS will provide valuable data for research on the dynamics of low income, welfare reliance and changes in family structure. contribution to policy development from the Parenting Payment new claims survey. The survey is designed to increase understanding of the characteristics, circumstances and needs of new parenting customers, to assist with the implementation of the Helping Parents Return to Work initiative, and to provide baseline data for the evaluation of the initiative. Altogether 2005 Parenting Payment customers were interviewed. A longitudinal data set of customers first interviewed in 2002 was developed. a series of seminars on wealth and debt issues facing income support recipients, to inform policy development on increasing self-reliance implementing the recommendations of the Australian National Audit Office (ANAO) audit of Parenting Payment (Single) support for the Breaching Review Taskforce in November 2003 to review breach data and procedures and to assess the fairness of the breach penalty system. The taskforce is due to report to the Minister in December 2004. completion of a solution-focused research project—‘Mental Health Barriers to Social and Economic Participation’—which explored common mental health disorders as they apply to the income support population. Results stimulated the commencement of a suite of interconnected trials, which focus on both the impact of mental health awareness training and the delivery of short-term intensive mental health interventions.
Work is required to:implement the Business Alliance Agreement to strengthen FaCS’ strategic alliance with Centrelink continue to refine quality controls and quality assurance processes for our payments and programs commence a procurement process to secure Personal Support Programme contracts that are due to end in June 2005 assess the applicability of outcomes from a number of mental health trials to broader participation policy. The trials aim to evaluate early intervention strategies for income support customers with mental health issues. respond to and implement any recommendations from the Breaching Review Taskforce report. Financial and staffing resources summaryTable 41: Output Group 3.1—Labour market assistance
a. Final estimates have been used for special appropriations while additional estimates have been used for annual appropriations. b. Budget prior to additional estimates. c. FaCS includes the Social Security Appeals Tribunal.
Performance informationAdministered itemsLabour market assistance-assistance for people of workforce ageNotesThe performance information regarding labour market assistance payments (NSA, MAA, PA and WA) in this output group excludes information relating to participants in Community Development Employment Project (CDEP). These CDEP participants receive a CDEP scheme payment and may be eligible for the CDEP Participant Supplement and certain social security ‘add-ons’, such as Rent Assistance and Pharmaceutical Allowance. However, the basic rate of these labour market payments is not payable to CDEP scheme participants, hence their exclusion from the performance information provided below. The majority of performance information is calculated using data for June 2004. This information is at a point in time rather than a yearly average. Effectiveness-adequacyPer cent of maximum adult rates of income support to minimum wage Table 42: Per cent of adult rates of income support as a percentage of minimum wage, June 2003 and June 2004
a.These are partnered rates of payment. Effectiveness-independenceAverage duration of Newstart Allowance/Youth Allowance (other) incapacity exemption Newstart Allowance: 100 days; Youth Allowance: 64 days Average duration on income support in weeks Table 43: Average duration on income support in weeks, June 2003 and June 2004
Percentage of Newstart allowees who leave payment within the first three months— 34 per cent Percentage of Newstart allowees receiving payments for 12 months or more—60.9 per cent, up from 60.3 per cent in June 2003 Percentage of Parenting Payment recipients with a duration of five years or more—Parenting Payment (Single): 29 per cent; Parenting Payment (Partnered): 21 per cent Percentage of customers undertaking paid work, job search, education or training, employment assistance, Work for the Dole, Mutual Obligation initiative or voluntary work —At June 2004, the percentage of jobseekers on Newstart Allowance and Youth Allowance (other) whose main activity was job search was 52 per cent. The percentage of jobseekers on Newstart Allowance and Youth Allowance (other) undertaking, as an activity, part-time work (taken to satisfy the activity test), education or training, employment assistance, Work for the Dole, Mutual Obligation initiative, or voluntary work was 13.2 per cent. Number of customers who deplete their Working Credit (i.e. number of customers who use the Working Credit financial incentive to take up paid employment)—Approximately 26 000 per fortnight Percentage of customers with earnings Table 44: Percentage of income support customers with earnings, June 2003 and June 2004
Average amount of earnings per fortnight Table 45: Average amount of earnings of income support customers per fortnight, 2002–03 and 2003–04
Note: The percentage of Parenting Payment (Single) and Parenting Payment (Partnered) customers with earnings, and their average earnings for 2002-03, have been revised from those reported in FaCS’ 2002-03 annual report. This reflects revision of the source data by Centrelink. Figure 13: Proportion of Newstart Allowance customers with earnings and average amount of earnings in June, 1998 to 2004 Effectiveness-take-up/coveragePercentage of population of workforce age on labour market assistance-related income support Table 46: Percentage of population of workforce age on labour market assistance–related income support, June 2003 and June 2004
Effectiveness-targetingNumber and average duration of waiting periods applied to Newstart Allowance claimants in 2003-04 A total of 114 011 customers commenced an ordinary waiting period with an average duration of seven days within the year; 33 728 customers commenced an income maintenance waiting period with an average duration of 32.1 days within the year; 32 543 customers commenced a liquid assets waiting period with an average duration of 64.4 days within the year; and 18 customers commenced a newly arrived resident waiting period. The average duration for customers completing a newly arrived resident waiting period within the year was 728 days. Number of customers leaving payment following referral to mutual obligation activity An estimated 984 customers left payment after being breached for failing to attend a mutual obligation interview or comply with a mutual obligation agreement. Percentage of customers on part rate due to income test Table 47: Percentage of customers on part rate due to income test, June 2003 and June 2004
Note: A significant number of Special Benefit customers receive a part rate of payment as a result of modest income received from sources other than earnings such as overseas part pensions. As Special Benefit has no income-free area, their benefit is reduced on a dollar-for-dollar basis. Note: The percentage of Parenting Payment (Single) and Parenting Payment (Partnered) customers with earnings, and their average earnings for 2002-03, have been revised from those reported in FaCS’ 2002-03 annual report. This reflects revision of the source data by Centrelink. QuantityTotal number of customers assisted Table 48: Number of customers in receipt of assistance, June 2003 and June 2004
Number of customers also receiving supplementary payments Number of customers in receipt of supplementary assistance through the following payments in 2003-04: Education Entry Payment: 50 445 Employment Entry Payment: 85 280 Pensioner Education Supplement: 50 445 Language, Literacy and Numeracy Supplement: 18 874. Of the 50 445 customers receiving Pensioner Education Supplement (PES), 4377 were receiving PES at the half rate. Parenting Payment (Single) customers comprise around 56 per cent of PES recipients; Disability Support Pensioners comprise 29 per cent. The remaining 15 per cent receive Carer Payment, Veterans’ Affairs pensions, Widow Allowance, Widow B Pension or Wife Pension.
Price$1.1 million — Bereavement Allowance $372.5 million — Mature Age Allowance $4 754.7 million — Newstart Allowance $5995.1million — Parenting Payment (Partnered and Single) $313.7 million — Partner Allowance (Benefit) $546.8 million — Partner Allowance (Pension) $72.1 million — Pensioner Education Supplement $113.1 million—Special Benefit $469.3 million—Widow Allowance
CommentaryOverall, a smaller proportion of working-age people received labour market assistance-related income support compared with last year. This is largely due to strong economic and labour market conditions in recent years. These conditions have been of most benefit to short-term unemployed people. Around six in 10 people receiving unemployment payments have been on income support for 12 months or more. Against this general trend, the number of people receiving Parenting Payment (Single) rose by almost three per cent in the year to June 2004. The increase in Parenting Payment (Single) customer numbers partly reflects growth in the number of single-parent families with children aged under 16 years in the general population. In addition, the relatively generous indexation of the payment rates and income test threshold means a growing number of Parenting Payment (Single) customers with higher earnings are remaining eligible for a part rate of payment. Finally, the generosity of the pension package (rates, income test and concessions) received by Parenting Payment (Single) customers relative to Parenting Payment (Partnered) customers provides a disincentive for single parents to partner. There is anecdotal evidence that this disincentive may be affecting customer behaviour, such that in recent years fewer Parenting Payment (Single) customers are partnering, leading to higher numbers remaining on Parenting Payment (Single). The increasing proportion of long-term Newstart Allowance customers is reflected in the increase in average duration on income support of the Newstart Allowance population in the year to June 2004. Recent measures in the Australians Working Together (AWT) package, such as the Personal Support Programme, will help long-term customers address barriers they face to entering and re-entering the labour market. The average duration on income support has also increased for Mature Age and Partner Allowance customers compared with June 2003. This is likely to be attributable to the closure of Mature Age Allowance and Partner Allowance to new claimants from 20 September 2003. As no new customers are coming onto these payments, the average duration on income support for customers on these payments is expected to continue to increase. The proportion of customers with earnings increased in June 2004 compared with June 2003. Average earnings per fortnight also increased over this period. The robust economic and labour market conditions are contributing factors, coupled with the introduction of a number of Australians Working Together measures, such as Personal Advisers and Working Credit, that aim to encourage and facilitate greater participation in the workforce and community. Working Credit began on 20 September 2003 and is available to over 2 million income support customers. It allows working-age customers to keep more of their income support payment when they first start work. Since its introduction, nearly 540 000 individuals have used their working credits. Newstart Allowance, Parenting Payment (Single), Youth Allowance (other), and Disability Support Pension customers appear to be the biggest users of Working Credit.
Payment to voluntary work agencies—Voluntary Work Initiative including AWT Participation through VolunteeringQuantityNumber of customers assisted and referred to voluntary work—18 146 Price$3.3 million CommentaryA review of the program was completed in 2003. Consultation with the volunteering sector and other stakeholders about the future design of the program will be completed in 2004. The consultations have been designed to capture views about how the program can better respond to emerging needs and issues within the volunteering sector. Personal Support Programme (PSP)CostAmount outlaid to PSP providers in the past 12 months, expressed as average cost per participant in dollars Over 40 185 individuals accessed Personal Support Programme services in 2003-04 at an average cost of just under $1000 per participant. Effectiveness-adequacyPercentage of participants achieving social outcomes, and durable economic outcomes, within the last 12 months (as assessed using FaCS guidelines) In total, 4812 Personal Support Programme participants achieved a social or durable economic outcome in 2003-04: 1701 participants (35 per cent) achieved a durable economic outcome—that is, 26 continuous weeks of employment, education or transition into Job Network, intensive assistance or Disability Employment Assistance 977 (20 per cent) achieved an employment outcome 3111 participants (65 per cent) achieved a social outcome.
Quality-access and choiceNumber of organisations delivering PSP services, nationally, by rural/metropolitan breakdown At June 2004, Personal Support Programme was being delivered at 600 sites throughout Australia. Of these sites, 300 are in metropolitan areas, 273 are in regional or rural areas, and 27 sites deliver Personal Support Programme in remote areas. Nearly 90 per cent of the 137 employment service areas have more than one Personal Support Programme service provider operating within the area.
QuantityNumber of individuals participating in PSP over the last 12 months In 2003-04 the Personal Support Programme assisted 40 185 individuals, up from approximately 26 000 in 2002-03 and exceeding target participant numbers of 35 000 for the year. Price$36.7 million CommentaryIn 2003-04, demand for the Personal Support Programme (PSP) continued to outstrip supply with waitlists peaking at nearly 20 per cent of capacity in November 2003. On 30 June 2004 the Minister announced changes to the funding structure of the program, increasing the payments made to providers for the following service arrangements and outcomes: increase in interpreter allowance; introduction of a new remote service payment; bringing forward the economic outcome payment from 26 weeks to 13 weeks; and introducing a new post-placement support payment at 26 weeks. These changes commence on 1 July 2004. The increase in the interpreter allowance was backdated for all current participants who were eligible for the interpreter allowance in the 2003-04 financial year as was the new remote service delivery payment. Action research process was introduced to the PSP Indigenous pilots this year, with the primary objective being to document the development of the innovative pilots, and to assess the appropriateness of the new models for the broader PSP service delivery network. Action research reporting has been extended to February 2005 due to delays in the pilot start dates. Welfare Reform Consultative ForumQuantityAdvice on operation of Australia’s welfare system number of meetings per annum number of individuals or organisations represented in the forum’s membership The forum consists of nine members from the government, community and business sectors. The forum met twice during 2003-04, and members participated in a working group on developing and communicating new welfare reform language to encourage participation. Price$0.5 million (departmental expenses) Departmental outputsCostRatio of departmental expense to administered expense For every dollar spent on administered items under Output Group 3.1, 5.9 cents were spent on departmental outputs. Policy adviceQuality-customer satisfactionMinisters and ministers’ offices satisfied with the quality of policy advice and department meets standards for policy advice Ministers and their offices did not provide feedback on individual output groups but did provide feedback on departmental performance as a whole. Information on ministers’ and their offices’ assessment can be found in Volume two, Part two, ‘Ministerial and parliamentary services’. QuantityNumber of items to ministers 204 ministerial submissions and other written briefings or advice prepared; 580 ministerial replies to correspondence completed. Price$19.7 million Purchasing, funding and relationship managementQuality-assuranceDepartment ensures that service providers meet terms and conditions of funding The Business Partnership Agreement with Centrelink sets out key result areas and performance measures that apply to payments and services for Output Group 3.1. Centrelink monitors performance against agreed standards for the delivery of services and provides quarterly performance reports to FaCS. Service agreements or contracts meet legislative, government policy and departmental requirements are in place with all service providers Under the Business Partnership Agreement with Centrelink, Output Group 3.1 has one output specification. QuantityNumber of contracts or service agreements under management Contracts: 2 (1 Business Partnership Agreement with Centrelink and 1 contract with Volunteering Australia) Service agreements: 148 with Personal Support Programme providers
149 service providers (1 contract with Volunteering Australia; 148 service providers deliver Personal Support Programme services across 600 sites nationally) Price$12.0 million Research and evaluationQuality-assuranceResearch and evaluation is of a high standard (timely, fulfils terms of reference, complete, methodologically sound) and contributes to policy understanding and development Research and evaluation during 2003-04 met the timelines and terms of reference and used sound methodology. All research and evaluation was of a consistently high standard. QuantityMajor pieces of research and evaluation completed-1 Price$15.6 million Service deliveryQuality-assuranceService providers deliver services to the standards agreed with FaCS Maintaining the integrity of the $65 billion that the department administers on behalf of government continued to be a priority for the department in 2003-04. The financial year 2003-04 was the second year of the rolling random sample survey that provides the department with access to independent data about the accuracy of payments to customers for all the major income support payments. This program was funded in the 2001-02 Budget. The results of the random sample surveys show that the payment accuracy rate for the first two quarters of 2003-04 was 96.7 per cent, statistically unchanged from the 2002-03 result of 96.6 per cent. The payment types surveyed were Age Pension, Disability Pension, Newstart Allowance, Parenting Payment (Partnered), Parenting Payment (Single) and Youth Allowance. Quality—customer rights and obligationsControl of incorrect payment and fraud: savings in administered items arising from compliance activities Review mechanisms common across most payment types for detection and control of incorrect payment and fraud are described in Volume two, Part two, ‘Right payments to the right people’. For the purposes of this report, these reviews include compliance reviews, service profiling and general program reviews. In 2003-04, the Integrated Review System and an interrogation of the Centrelink mainframe data indicated that a total of 2 269 807 Newstart Allowance, Partner Allowance, Parenting Payment (Single), Parenting Payment (Partnered), Widow Allowance, Mature Age Allowance, Special Benefit and Pensioner Education Supplement reviews were completed. It is estimated that rate reductions resulted in fortnightly savings of $75 297 967 and upward variations resulted in fortnightly increases of $13 613 428. It is estimated that debts totalled $234 246 767. Performance outcomes for debt recovery and prosecution activity are reported in ‘Right payments to the right people’. Percentage of reviews and appeals where the original decision is changed Table 49: Reviews and appeals—Output Group 3.1, 2003-04
Price$695.1 million — Centrelink $4.2 million — other Directory: sites -> default -> files -> documents documents -> North Mankato Taylor Library documents -> In the Red and Brown Water documents -> - documents -> Cbp and Trade Automated Interface Requirements Appendix: pga december 22, 2015 documents -> Ace abi catair customs and Trade Automated Interface Requirements documents -> Ace abi catair customs and Trade Automated Interface Requirements documents -> Mobile audio/video recording systems documents -> The south australian government gazette documents -> All public acts appearing in this gazette are to be considered official, and obeyed as such documents -> Union interparlementaire inter-parliamentary union Download 1.62 Mb. Share with your friends:
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