Crackdown on dole druggies

DRUGGIES and drunks will be booted off the dole or forced into rehab as the Turnbull government forces random drug tests on the jobless.

Hangovers will no longer be a valid excuse for dole bludgers to skip job interviews, in a crackdown on welfare fraud to save taxpayers $ 632 million over the next four years.

Older job seekers will be forced to look harder for work, and alcoholism or drug- dependency will be removed as a stand- alone reason for getting the Disability Support Pension from July 1.

Drug addicts and alcoholics could be forced into rehab as a condition of welfare payments.

Random drug tests will be carried out on 5000 job seekers in 2018 and 2019, with saliva, urine and hair samples taken to test for ice, cannabis and ecstasy. Private drug testing companies would carry out on- thespot tests at three trial sites nationally, to be chosen on the basis of wastewater testing that identifies local drug use in various locations.

Social Services Minister Christian Porter said unemployed people were 2.4 times more likely to use illicit drugs than those with jobs.

Dole recipients who flunk a drug test will have their welfare payments “quarantined” so they can only spend money on essentials such as food, housing and utilities.

A new Jobseeker Payment will replace five existing welfare payments from March 2020. Newstart, the Sickness Allowance, Wife Pension, Partner Allowance, Bereavement Allowance, Widow Allowance and Widow B Pension will be axed.

But 99 per cent of recipients will get the same payment on the new Jobseeker allowance.