Welfare Quarantining? Check this out

[JustRalph]

This is an article from a Socialist Website that is not happy with Australia requiring Welfare receipients to spend half of their Welfare checks on basics only........... interesting concept..........

Labor government extends welfare quarantine powers across Australia
By Alex Messenger
28 June 2010

Labor’s punitive new regime of “welfare quarantining” comes into force this week, allowing government to dictate how pensioners and the long-term unemployed spend their money. The legislation, passed last week with the support of the Coalition in the Senate, will be implemented throughout the Northern Territory by the end of the year in preparation for its extension nationally. The law, which has been pushed through with virtually no public discussion, blames welfare recipients for their plight and subjects their handouts to oversight and restrictions.

The Social Security and Other Legislation Amendment (Welfare Reform and Reinstatement of Racial Discrimination Act) Act 2010 means that from July 1 the entire Northern Territory will be subject to the quarantining policies originally introduced into remote Aboriginal communities in 2007. This brings an additional 40,000 people within the “income management” regime. What has not generally been reported is that the relevant minister—currently Labor’s Jenny Macklin—can now extend the measure to any area, including any state, in the country.

Writing in Murdoch’s Australian, editor-at-large Paul Kelly hailed the legislation, declaring: “The welfare reform shatters 100 years of Labor tradition in the cause of mutual responsibility and attacking passive welfare. If [former conservative prime minister] John Howard were advancing this law the media would be awash with rows, denunciation and wall-to-wall ABC coverage of the controversy.”
“Mutual responsibility” and “passive welfare” are catch-phrases used for subjecting the most vulnerable sections of society to restrictions designed to force them into low-paid work. Rather than lift poverty-level welfare payments, the legislation, in the name of protecting children, transforms half of the government allowances into little more than food stamps. In announcing passage of the law, Macklin indicated the government would go further, saying: “Labor is committed to progressively reforming the welfare system to foster individual responsibility.”

Under the new provisions, welfare recipients identified as either long-term unemployed, “disengaged youth” or “vulnerable” (including pensioners and single parents in “financial hardship”) are prohibited from spending half their welfare payment (the “quarantined” portion) on anything other than “basics,” including food and clothes. Quarantined purchases can be made only with a “basics card” at designated stores.

much more at the link

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2010/jun2010/welf-j28.shtml

[Steve 'StatMan']

Interesting point. Is it the welfare recipient's money, or is it the taxpayer's money given for the life-management of the welfare recipient? If the latter, then there should be some say on how it is used. After all, the welfare recipient didn't 'earn' the money, they were given it out of need. And if it doesn't go toward the 'needs', more will be asked for to take care of their personal choices plus the still unmet need.

I've had some very enlightening (and expensive) experiences the last two years dealing with people who say they 'need'. What most really need are either to learn to manage themselves better, or to be forcefully managed. Otherwise they continue to fail, and drag down the people trying to help them.

Some need the nanny state, others don't don't. And for some, the nanny state will never be enough, the idiotic and hopeless who insist on doing it over & over the wrong & expensive way.

[boxcar]

Interesting point. Is it the welfare recipient's money, or is it the taxpayer's money given for the life-management of the welfare recipient? If the latter, then there should be some say on how it is used. After all, the welfare recipient didn't 'earn' the money, they were given it out of need. And if it doesn't go toward the 'needs', more will be asked for to take care of their personal choices plus the still unmet need.

I've had some very enlightening (and expensive) experiences the last two years dealing with people who say they 'need'. What most really need are either to learn to manage themselves better, or to be forcefully managed. Otherwise they continue to fail, and drag down the people trying to help them.

Some need the nanny state, others don't don't. And for some, the nanny state will never be enough, the idiotic and hopeless who insist on doing it over & over the wrong & expensive way.

Your point is well made; however, there is also a another pernicious downside to this welfare state culture. (And this is what we're rapidly becoming...by design! We're becoming a welfare culture because this is all income redistribution, which are social engineering schemes, can produce.) Once the government has more than 50% of the people on the public dole (which we're inching closer to that reality if "welfare reform" ever passes), who is to say that the state won't take the welfare rules/requirements to the next level? The state, through current technology, would be able to rigidly control buying and spending electronically through computer encoding of its little plastic cards. This in turn could limit welfare recipients access to information, limit access to the health care, limit access to computers, etc., etc. -- any and all of which could be eased if the recipient happened to be a registered voter for the "progressives", etc, etc., etc. Once the ball gets rolling on these social engineering schemes, there's virtually no limit to what the state can demand. Don't forget: The state is sitting in the catbird seat. Government is the one with the funds! Control, control, control. That's the name of Nanny State's game. A state big enough to giveth is also big enough to taketh away.

And never forget this: A godless state can only become a god. Something has to fill the deity void. And this is a very scary thought...

Boxcar