Jobs Minister Kelly O’Dwyer will order her department to crack down on providers breaching government guidelines for a job-readiness scheme, in the wake of this week’s Senate inquiry into ParentsNext.
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One of the government’s signature welfare programs, ParentsNext was designed to prepare parents to return to work but has been the subject of intense criticism since revelations participants were being forced to sign privacy waivers and undertake onerous reporting requirements in order to be eligible for benefits.
Participants were forced to show proof of attendance at swimming lessons and library sessions.
The minister said her department sent out revised guidelines late last year which made clear which kinds of activities should be mandated.
“The swimming lessons were clearly not an appropriate activity and the department took action as soon as it became aware of it,” Ms O'Dwyer said.
However, she defended the program, which she said would reduce intergenerational welfare dependency and provide a pathway into employment.
“No government program is perfect, but this has the right intention,” she said.
But she acknowledged that some providers did not exercise what she called “common sense” in their dealings with participants, who are mostly single mothers.
“We do need to recognise there will be some smoothing out around some of these issues [but] if providers are not fulfilling their obligations as per our contract with them, we will build in appropriate penalties for those providers,” she said.
At the Senate hearings on Wednesday, department staff said there had only been two complaints about the privacy waivers. Yet a letter from Jobs Department deputy secretary Nathan Smyth to the chief executive officers of all ParentsNext providers, dated February 6, acknowledged reports parents felt pressured to sign the privacy notification and consent form or “risk having their payments suspended if they did not".
"Please ensure your staff know that parents are not obliged to sign the consent form and failure to do so does not result in suspended payments," the letter said.
Ella Buckland, a former staff member for the Greens who is now a welfare campaigner, attended the hearings this week.
“I find it interesting that the department effectively denied any detailed knowledge of the forced privacy waiver issue, and yet here is a letter dated February 6 detailing their knowledge of problem,” she said.
In a letter to the chief executives dated December 14, Mr Smyth said staff should not ask libraries to identify parents and children attending activities, after complaints from the Australian Library and Information Association and Australian Public Library Alliance.
The Australian Council of Social Services (ACOSS) is seeking urgent changes to ParentsNext, including both the removal of the targeted compliance framework and parenting requirements, such as participation in playgroups.
ACOSS chief executive Cassandra Goldie said the next government should commission an independent public review of employment-related activity requirements for people with major barriers to employment.
The minister said there would be no legislative changes to ParentsNext before the election.
