With youth unemployment hitting 30 per cent in parts of Coolaroo and Craigieburn, Youth Projects chief executive Melanie Raymond has slammed last week’s federal budget.
Ms Raymond described the changes to unemployment benefits as “harsh”, estimating 60 per cent of the youth training and outreach agency’s caseload of more than 550 young people in Melbourne’s north would be left without any safety net.
She said the region with the highest rate of youth unemployment in the country had received “no help, only pain” in this budget.
“The government has no answer as to how young people leaving school, who cannot find work, will survive in this period,” she said.
“This is the worst start in life, pushing more young people in this area into poverty.”
Last week’s budget increased the age of eligibility for Newstart Allowance from 22 to 24 years of age as of January next year. Job seekers aged less than 30 will have to wait six months without support before they can apply for assistance.
Ms Raymond said a six-month delay for Newstart allowance for the newly unemployed could tip more young people into homelessness and would make job seeking even harder.
“The realities at present are that in the Calder region young people leave school earlier, have fewer qualifications and enter a stagnant job market where there are many more job seekers than job vacancies,” Ms Raymond said.
She said 56 per cent of Youth Projects clients had only achieved a year 10 education level, while 12 per cent had only primary school or below year 10.
She estimated at least a quarter of the agency’s clients were homeless or at risk of homelessness.
“There is a close link between family violence and unemployment in this area,” she said.
“Hume has the third-highest rate of family violence reports in Victoria.”
Ms Raymond said Youth Projects worked with local employers to demonstrate the benefits of employing young people who were job-ready, and the program had proved very successful.
“Closer relationships with business is our best strategy, where we can prepare job seekers with the skills in demand,” she said.
“Otherwise many young people are facing a bleak future and this community will need to rally around to create something better than the government has offered us.”
Federal MP for Scullin Andrew Giles urged people to protest the wide-ranging cuts and broken promises, saying they would lead to “intergenerational inequality”.
“Doors are being shut here,” Mr Giles said. “These cuts show that the Abbott government has no plan for Australian jobs, and that young people are not a priority.”
