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Jeremy Poxon

@jeremypoxon.bsky.social

i've been bullied to go on here by @maximumwelfare to post about the mutual obligations scandal contact me if you have MOs issues or questions: jeremy@antipovertycentre.org

338 Posts1365 Follower357 Folgt
Penny Allman-Payne@pennyallmanpayne.com · last wk.

Labor backbenchers have been out in force the past few days spruiking "increases" in Centrelink payments. To be very, very clear: this is absolute bullshit. This is an automatic CPI adjustment, not an increase. Labor is still keeping people on income support in poverty.

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Greg Jericho@grogsgamut.bsky.social · 2w ago

"Can someone explain why – in an economy in which the central bank has decided we need almost 700,000 people to be unemployed – those people live in such dreadful poverty that it can make you up to 10 times more likely to die in the prime of your life?" www.theguardian.com/business/gro...

In such a rich country, it is shameful how many Australians on jobseeker are dying in desperate poverty | Greg Jericho

Lifting the abysmally low jobseeker rate to the poverty line would save thousands of lives

theguardian.com

Jeremy Poxon@jeremypoxon.bsky.social · 2w ago

some analysis on these disturbing numbers from the AIHW here: www.aihw.gov.au/reports/cent... saying that the combination of strong labour market participation and eligibility tightening "may mean a higher concentration of vulnerable and disadvantaged people receiving income support payments."

The longer-term trend of rising mortality rates among income support recipients could be due to multiple factors. The percentage of the working-age Australian population receiving income support payments has been declining over time, due to strong labour market participation and tightening eligibility requirements for payments (AIHW 2025). More people working and fewer people eligible for support may mean a higher concentration of vulnerable and disadvantaged people receiving income support payments. The mortality rates for men who received income support were, on average, twice as high as those for women. Men not receiving income support also had higher mortality rates than women, but the gap was not as large (average of men 1.6 times as high as women).
Melissa@artistaffame.bsky.social · 3w ago

Oh look apparently poverty is bad for you! Who knew? Shocking new report finds ‘profound’ death rate among Aussies on welfare payments 7news.com.au/news/shockin...

Jeremy Poxon@jeremypoxon.bsky.social · 3w ago

As someone who regularly shares estimates videos for advocacy reasons, I will second everyone's scorn about senior bureaucrats crying about Posting. Despite operating the systems that control our lives, it's sadly the only scrutiny from Normal People they tend to get - so naturally they hate it

Jeremy Poxon@jeremypoxon.bsky.social · last mo.

Just now, @pennyallmanpayne.com points out that EVERY civil society stakeholder wants the Targeted Compliance Framework abolished Government says it does not support job providers "undertaking action that is unlawful or that is based on fear" False: you directly pay them to do this

Antipoverty Centre@antipovertycentre.org · 2mo ago

Today we have issued a joint statement with the other members of the reference group that the government convened in response to the discovery of unlawful welfare administration. You can read more on The Point: live.thepoint.com.au/2026/08/the-...

Last week the government announced its plan to restart some payment cancellations and suspensions that are applied to Centrelink recipients, which were found to operate unlawfully. Members of DEW's Targeted Compliance Framework Reference Group - which was established after the government discovered its unlawful administration - strongly oppose compulsory activities for people on Centrelink payments. We are calling on the Government to abandon its recently announced plan to restart some payment cancellations and suspensions, and stop the penalty system entirely.
Jeremy Poxon@jeremypoxon.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Sir, it's homelessness week and you've got a big decision to make. Do you want to be filmed pretending to be homeless with CEOs for a night, or do you want to be filmed handing out Grill'd

Crikey@crikey.com.au · 3mo ago

"Either knowingly or through ignorance, Services Australia has been failing for years to process social security payments and benefits across 93 separate matters," writes Crikey's correspondent-at-large Rick Morton. www.crikey.com.au/2026/06/30/s...

Robodebt spectre invoked in damning report on Services Australia

This latest look under the hood of Services Australia reveals an agency incapable of effectively managing some of the most complex legislation in the country.

crikey.com.au

Jeremy Poxon@jeremypoxon.bsky.social · 3mo ago

"The real lesson from decades of harm is not that we need to tweak compulsory activities. It is that we need to abandon compulsion and place our trust in people instead of providers." thepoint.com.au/opinions/260...

What are Australia's jobs programs really for? The answer may be that employment was never the point.

This month it was Social Services Minister Amanda Rishworth announcing changes to the compulsory activities people on JobSeeker can be forced to undertake. The debate always focuses on the details. Wh...

thepoint.com.au

Guardian Australia@australia.theguardian.com · 4mo ago

States tell Albanese government that NDIS changes could mean people with disabilities are shifted into hospitals

States tell Albanese government that NDIS changes could mean people with disabilities are shifted into hospitals

Plan to move 240,000 people off scheme leads states and territories to jointly warn they can’t ‘deliver like-for-like services to people who are exited from the NDIS’ * Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates * Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast State and territory disability ministers have rung alarm bells over the Albanese government’s proposed overhaul of the NDIS, warning they can’t deliver “like-for-like services” for more than 200,000 participants expected to be shifted off the scheme by 2031. The Albanese government’s national disability insurance scheme bill is designed to dramatically curb the growth of the $50bn-a-year scheme by first reducing budgets and then the number of people who can access it from 2028. Continue reading...

theguardian.com

Jeremy Poxon@jeremypoxon.bsky.social · 4mo ago

The Department has admitted to many thousands of unlawful cancellations. The last Ombudsman report also indicated large numbers of incorrect payment suspensions The government just said on the radio that these victims of UNLAWFUL punishments should join their "lived experience panel". I stg

The Commonwealth Ombudsman, in many cases, saying 'actually this is not right,' being reinstated on that welfare. You go through all the stress of - if you are living, like, cheque to cheque, government payment to government payment, and then to have to go and prove that you were, you were eligible for it all along, how are we going to improve that system, so that we're not basically penalising and demonising people where they should actually be getting that support? GORMAN: Well, let's firstly say that we had a very recent experience in our living memory when it came to the pandemic, where a range of people lost their jobs because of no fault of their own, but because of economic and health circumstances outside of their control. So I recognise that the vast majority of people who find themselves looking for work, it's not because of anything they've done wrong, it is because of economic circumstances beyond their individual control. And that is why they deserve the support from their fellow Australian citizens funded through this program. And then if you go to the question about how do you make sure that people who are receiving payments through our social security system are getting those payments. Of course, that kind of marries with the changes to mutual obligations. Trying to make sure that that's an agreement between the participant who is participating in our employment services system and the government, in terms of saying, 'we will provide you with these financial supports,' and we can do that better. We have been really open about that in the discussion paper, and it is probably an opportunity for me to say, if you've got listeners who have experienced something where they think the system was not working and actually it made their life more stressful, and it took their focus away from looking for work, and took them to be focusing on those administrative matters, or sometimes having to fight for a payment. I would encourage them to write in to this c…
Jeremy Poxon@jeremypoxon.bsky.social · 4mo ago

DEWR got grilled in estimates earlier about the mutual obligations scandal "Under 42AM there could be up to 310k people affected [by unlawful payment cancellations]. What's your estimate?" Department: "It is in the vicinity of that"

Antipoverty Centre@antipovertycentre.org · 4mo ago

🗞️ Today SBS is doing (yet another) story about how unliveable the JobSeeker payment is. If you’re in Sydney or Melbourne and are interested in being interviewed for tonight’s news, send us an email via media@antipovertycentre.org

Tom Studans@maximumwelfare.bsky.social · 4mo ago

This Government and this Department both need a very serious reality check. DEWR does not have ANYTHING like the administrative capacity to manage 'mutual obligations', and $300m will not change this. Currently, the complaints service run by DEWR is in meltdown and can have a wait time of >4hrs.

Dan Holmes@dholmesnoise.bsky.social · 4mo ago

Something that may fly under the radar in the gov's employment services changes is the greater role government is likely to play in direct provision. Its not the whole system, but the Secretary's evidence was he expects it to be more than half. #auspol #ausnews