Survey Gives Young Australians a Voice on Welfare
20 February 2014 at 10:55 am
Australia’s national youth affairs peak body has launched an online survey to find out how young people experience Australia’s current welfare system.
The Australian Youth Affairs Coalition (AYAC) wants young Australians to share their opinions and experiences of the current welfare system, for reporting to the Federal Government’s review of the Welfare System.
AYAC Executive Director, Gabi Rosenstreich said the survey will enable Government to hear directly from young people who have experienced the welfare system firsthand.
“It will provide a valuable evidence base about how to improve service delivery and other areas of the welfare system,” Rosenstreich said.
She said that by sharing their opinions on recurrent issues with Centrelink, young people can help the government to reform the welfare system to be effective and a genuine pathway to a secure job.
“Young people have told us that they would like to be in genuine, secure and meaningful employment and this survey presents an opportunity to identify how service delivery, transition support and training can help them to do just that.” she said.
As one young person interviewed for AYAC’s Beyond Learn or Earn* report said: “If Centrelink wasn’t there it’d be harder, yeah, but at the same time, no one’s really proud of being on Centrelink. I’d much rather be working.”
The survey builds on AYAC’s research report Beyond Learn or Earn, which highlighted opportunities to improve the effectiveness of the welfare system to help transition young people into education and employment.
The survey is open until 3 March 2014 and can be found here.
