@*kazumi* wrote:
@lionrose.7 wrote:
$800 a fortnight is not just for food, medical bills, Power, Phone, clothes, petrol,
Winter heating bills are higher
When you take all this out does not leave a lot for food, some have to be on a specail diet.
Most doctors in Melbourne bulk bill everybody, medications are only few dollars for concession card holders. The flats are not very big, so would not take much to heat. I live in spacious and cold house, I run my gas heater whole day, and heat my bedroom and sewing room with Dimplex heaters for about $150 a fortnight. I am not saying that people on old age pension are wealthy, but they should not be running out of food 2 days before next pension day. Of-course, people on the pre-COVID dole would be another story, BUT that is not the way now with all benefits doubling.
Anyway, now we are all in lockdown and nobody is going to be dropping food parcels on my doorsteps. Not that I am complaining; I understand that without taking harsh measures things will only get worse. But I am greatly inconvenienced by it. I have heaps of things to do and I need some paint and other materials, which I did not manage to get today.
OK, so I will point out the elephant in the room ( and cop the venom from the usuals again )
Quite a few ( but certainly not all ) people on welfare simply don't know how to manage money. It doesn't matter how much they are given, it just disappears with very little to show for it. And the proof ? You only need to look at our indigenous communities. They receive an ever increasing fortune in government support and mining royalties but the ingrained poverty and social disadvantage does not seem to get any better for those living on the community settlements regardless of how much money is sent their way.
Many people on welfare come from families with inter generational poverty. Their parents didn't know how to work or manage their money and they ended up on welfare. They didn't have the skills to teach their children how to manage money. The kids mainly learn by example and many just copy what mum and dad do.
The smarter welfare family kids see the mistakes, take a different path in life, accept the extra educational and community support, get a job and break the cycle of welfare dependency, leaving those who are not savvy enough behind, entrenched on welfare dependency. These are the ones we see left behind in the towers in Melbourne.
Then there are those with mental health issues. These often go hand in hand with dependency issues. The two combined mean that welfare money soon disappears. While some of those affected can not be helped further, the answer for some is intensive education and ongoing support by councillors trained in money management and dependency issues.
Another useful tool is income management for vulnerable people with a history of financial mismanagement as tried by the government recently in some communities. It shouldn't be applied broadly to every Centrelink customer as the majority do a perfectly good job of making the best use of what they are given and further intrusions into their life by the state are demeaning and discriminatory, but for a targeted group, the income management system has merit.
No one likes to admit these things and its not politically correct to point it out, ( I,m sure a few of the usuals will be " highly offended " a-g-a-i-n ) but that is just the uncomfortable reality.
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