Young job seekers forced to wait six months for unemployment benefits will be required to apply for 40 jobs a month, document their efforts to find work and meet regularly with an employment service provider, despite not receiving any payments.
Under proposals announced in the budget, job seekers aged under 30 will be ineligible for payments for six months after applying for benefits.
Despite not receiving any money, job seekers will be required to meet the activity requirements for unemployment benefits throughout this period. If they fail to do so, their waiting period will be extended by four weeks. Job seekers will be required to attend monthly appointments with an employment service provider, and show evidence, such as a job search diary, that they have looked for 40 jobs that month.
Greens Senator Rachel Siewert said making people live for six months with no income support would make it more difficult for job seekers to meet their obligations.
''The government hasn't thought through how this cruel measure will be implemented, how compliance will work or how people will live for six months, let alone how they'll meet any obligations within that time,'' she said.
''People don't want to be stuck on income support. People want to be working, but the government's approach is making things much tougher.''
Labor has vowed to oppose the changes to unemployment benefits, which the government estimates will provide savings of $1.2 billion over four years.
In his budget reply speech, Opposition Leader Bill Shorten described the changes as "perhaps the single most heartless measure in this brutal budget", which would "create a forgotten generation of Australians - shut out of the workforce".
Mr Shorten said the changes would condemn young people to a "potentially endless cycle of poverty when they should be getting a hand to find a job".
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