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	Forcing poor families to live below the poverty line is not the way to grow the economy by Australian Council of Social Service & agencies Australia   Australian Senate report calls for urgent increase in Unemployment Allowance (Newstart).   The Australian Council of Social Service says the recent report by the Senate inquiry into the adequacy of the Australian unemployment benefit and other Allowances, adds to the chorus of calls for urgent action to increase these payments.   ACOSS CEO, Dr Cassandra Goldie said "the Inquiry heard from dozens of community organisations, business organisations, unions and experts that single people and sole parents on Newstart and similar payments cannot meet the most basic living costs.   "Many endorsed our call for an immediate $50 per week increase in these payments for singles, and for them to be indexed to wage movements so that the $140 per week gap between allowances and pensions does not grow any wider.   "We warn the political parties against any approach to payment reform that divides social security recipients into "deserving and undeserving poor" by providing extra assistance exclusively to one group and excluding others. It’s the historical targeting to deservedness rather than need that has been the root cause of much of the unfairness in our social security system today.   "This is the reason that allowances for unemployed people are $140 a week less than aged pensions, unemployed people and sole parents missed out on the increases to pensions in 2009, and nearly 100,000 sole parents will have their payments cut by $60 a week or more from next January 1, 2013.   "Just like a National Disability Insurance Scheme, recently introduced to parliament, an increase in Allowance payments is an urgent national priority. We can do both. Both are vitally important if we want to improve the lives of disadvanatged people in our country in the interests of greater economic and social participation by all.   "We call on the Government to heed the evidence and move to do the right thing by this group of forgotten people in Australia who have been left to languish on such meagre and unliveable allowance payments," Dr Goldie said.   Aug. 2012   Lin Hatfield Dodds, National Director of Uniting Care Australia, says forcing poor families to live below the poverty line is not the way to grow the economy.   Lin Hatfield Dodds: "Another year, another budget, and another cut which attacks vulnerable families to save some money.   It"s a sad but true reality of Australian politics in 2012 that the first people to feel the brunt of a drive to save money are those who will feel the pain most.   The revelation that up to 100,000 single parents will be shifted onto Newstart (the unemployment benefit) once their child turns eight years old is disappointing in the extreme. Such a measure does nothing other than impose more disadvantage on families who are already struggling.   There is consensus in Australia today that Newstart is grossly inadequate. That consensus isn"t just in the "welfare sector". We have seen not just the Australian Council of Social Service but business leaders and economists decry the Newstart allowance as simply not being enough.   Why then would we force families who are already struggling to make ends meet onto a payment that is acknowledged as being grossly inadequate?   Forcing single parents onto this payment will cut their base income by $118 a fortnight. This will push already disadvantaged families below the poverty line.   Forcing families to live below the poverty line is not the way to grow the economy. It is not the way to help them improve their circumstances. And it is not the way to give children the best start in life.   Cutting their families income does nothing to help vulnerable children access the services they need at a time when they need it most. It just places them further at risk.   There is, of course, the mistaken view that cutting welfare will encourage welfare recipients to find work. Our experience on the ground is that cutting payments results in household stress, fear and pressure rather than a sense of being supported or encouraged.   The reality is that jobless parents want to work. More than anyone, they know the value of a job for themselves, their children, and their children"s future.   What we need to see in the Australian budget are real measures that support vulnerable families; increased support, not a slash and burn approach that only entrenches disadvantage.   The current approach of attacking welfare recipients which is driven by an obsession to achieve a budget surplus at any cost is not working. It will only entrench disadvantage, push more families into poverty, and, ultimately, cost the budget more in the long run.   "Keeping a roof over their heads, paying utility bills and paying for school expenses is going to be that much harder," said Maree O"Halloran, President, National Welfare Rights Network.   "Financial hardship makes finding a job so much harder.. No one wins when children get left behind - a family breaks down when struggling with financial stress on a daily basis," said Terese Edwards, from the National Council of Single Mothers and their Children.   "The Government would do better to look for savings at the top end where billions are wasted every year on poorly targeted subsidies, tax concessions and other tax shelters which overwhelming benefit those on high incomes," said Dr Goldie. Visit the related web page
	Release imprisoned Iranian civil society activist Nasrin Sotoudeh by Civicus & agencies   September 2012   Please join the CIVICUS World Assembly in showing your solidarity for human rights lawyer and civil society activist Nasrin Sotoudeh, who is currently in the notorious Evin Prison in Tehran, Iran simply for doing her work as a human rights activist.   Nasrin was arrested in September 2010, held in solitary confinement for around four months and charged with “acting against national security, propaganda against the regime and for being a member of the Human Rights Defence Centre,” a human rights civil society organisation in Iran.   In January 2011, she was sentenced to 11 years in prison and handed a 20 year ban from legal practice and from travelling abroad. On appeal, in September 2011, the court reduced her sentence to six years and the ban on legal practice from 20 years to 10.   Nasrin is an advocate of women’s rights and has defended juveniles facing the death penalty and activists involved in protests calling for reforms.   We ask all our members, partners and stakeholders to show your support for and solidarity with Nasrin by sharing this information on your websites and Facebook pages, and by tweeting as follows:   Free Nasrin Sotoudeh! Jailed activist from Iran. Join the campaign! #civWA @freenasrin #freenasrin   More information:   http://action.iranhumanrights.org/p/dia/action3/common/public/?action_KEY=6840   Iran Cracks Down on Dissidents, Human Rights Attorneys and Journalists. (PBS)   http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/world/july-dec12/iran_11-23.html   http://www.hrw.org/news/2012/12/13/iran-activists-fleeing-assault-civil-society
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