[manicdee]

In Australia NewStart (unemployment benefits) amounts to about $250/week, or about $13,000pa in an economy where the cost of living is close to $45k. There are other support mechanisms such as rent assistance, but NewStart also obligates the recipient to search for work with a minimum number of interviews per week (up to 10) and a requirement to accept the first job that is offered (thus a person with IT project management experience could end up full time retail). Refusing a job offer means termination of benefits.

In addition the system is administered by private industry who are rewarded based on number of interviews, not placements.

I would hold up Australia’s unemployment welfare system as a prime example of what to not do.

[disordinary]

Good to know. Edited. My only real experience is NZ, although I know people that have been unemployed in Germany and France.

[manicdee]

Oh, and we have been sending debt collectors after unemployed people who got jobs, claiming that they committed fraud when it was actually the calculation of what was paid incirrectly that was wrong. Look up “robodebt”