Obligation Without Opportunity

Obligation Without Opportunity calls for a major overhaul of Australia’s employment service system, Workforce Australia.

Released ahead of the Jobs and Skills Summit, Obligation Without Opportunity finds that:

  • Employment services are failing to place people in work, are prone to errors, and have cost taxpayers billions
  • Almost two thirds of people in the system (58 percent) surveyed by Anglicare Australia have had a debt. Almost half of the time, provider or system errors caused the debt (47 percent)
  • This is backed by official figures which show an error rate of between one in five and one in two
  • Most people say the activities that providers are paid to run are pointless (79 percent)
  • Very few people believe that Centrelink obligations are helping them find paid work (13 percent)
  • An overwhelming number of people (74 percent) want to do Centrelink activities that are fair. Even more (75 percent) want to do activities that lead to work.