Australia reveals welfare dependency "hot spots" ahead of crackdown

Source: Xinhua| 2017-06-13 09:31:11|Editor: xuxin
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CANBERRA, June 13 (Xinhua) -- The Australian government on Tuesday revealed the nation's worst "hot spots" for welfare cheats, as the government prepares to crack down on the issue of "intergenerational welfare dependency."

Social Services Minister Alan Tudge made the rounds of local media on Tuesday, highlighting the importance of cracking down on those who take advantage of the welfare system, explaining that there were at least 100,000 people who were "failing to turn up at their basic (welfare) obligations."

Tudge said the Sydney suburb of Blacktown and the regional Victorian city of Mildura were among the worst "hot spots."

"There are hot spots around Australia where people are consistently failing to turn up to their job interviews, other important appointments and turning down jobs when they are available to them," Tudge told the Nine Network on Tuesday.

"To date, they've been getting away with that with very few penalties, and we're determined to change that system to not only identify the people who actually need assistance earlier, but most importantly crack down on those people who are deliberately flouting the law."

He said the government was planning to introduce a new three-strike system, whereby welfare recipients will have their payments cut off unless they can provide a reasonable excuse for not turning up to welfare appointments or arranged job interviews.

"We know there are about 100,000 people nation-wide who miss their appointments without a reasonable excuse," Tudge said.

"We think that those people are deliberately flouting the system. It seems like they're trying to get around the rules and avoid getting work whereas we know that it's in everybody's interest for those people to be looking for work, taking those job interviews and accepting those jobs when available."

Meanwhile the Member for Mallee Andrew Broad told reporters on Tuesday that there were plenty of jobs available in the city of Mildura -- one of the worst "hot spots" for welfare flouters.

"If you are receiving an unemployment benefit in Mildura, we expect you to have a mutual obligation to be giving back and to go from being an unemployed person to being a job seeker," Broad said in Canberra.

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