Kay Cook paper 14Feb08

Abstract

McJobs, Workfirst and Lone Mothers: An Australian Response Kay Cook, PhD Lecturer, School of Health and Social Development, Deakin University

Who is more the fool: The fool or the fool who follows the fool? Welfare to work requirements which began in the United states have now spread to other western countries, as Professor Evans has described, including Canada, the United Kingdom and Australia. In Canada, as early as 1994 the Canadian National Council of Welfare reported to the Canadian federal government that the various work-for-welfare programs in the United States had been tried with mixed results. While many of them had led to increases in earnings for recipients and lower welfare payments, the end result was often that “welfare poor” families had been turned into “working poor” families (Canadian National Council of Welfare 1994, p1).