A government program to pay unemployed people to move for a job has used just $900,000 of a four-year $21.8m budget.
The relocation to take up a job program was announced as an election pledge by the Liberal party before the 2013 election and was introduced in July last year.
It was funded over four years at a cost of $21.8m but almost a year into the program it has spent about $900,000 with 454 people having taken it up by 26 May, figures from Jobs Services Australia show.
The president of the National Welfare Rights Network, Kate Beaumont, said the money would be better spent on wage subsidies for people with disabilities and the long-term unemployed.
“Successive federal governments have introduced programs to encourage the relocation of jobseekers to take up paid employment, but these initiatives have all met with limited success,” she said.
“The take-up of this latest one, and all previous relocation programs, have been significantly less than anticipated. But this was neither unexpected nor cause for concern.
“Moving interstate is a major decision, and not all jobseekers would be willing and able to pack their lives in a few suitcases and move away from family, friends and their usual surroundings.”
Beaumont pointed to a Productivity Commission review which found people were more likely to move because of family and housing rather than for a job.
Housing-related reasons were nominated in the review by about 50% of people who moved, and family reasons by about 30%. Employment was cited by between 10% and 17% of residential movers, depending on the data used.
“There has been a significant underspend on the program, and it seems unlikely that jobseekers are going to be in a hurry to take up all the unwanted relocation places any time soon,” Beaumont said.
“One doesn’t need to look far to find other areas of greater priority, such as increased funding of legal assistance for people experiencing problems with Centrelink. The $20m allocated for relocation assistance could also provide an additional 10,000 six-month wage subsidies for people with disabilities and for very long-term-unemployed jobseekers.”
The social services minister, Scott Morrison, was contacted for comment.
Of those who have relocated, 109 did not have children and moved to a capital city, 22 had children and moved to a capital city, 54 moved to a regional area with children and 269 to a regional area without them.
Asked during last month’s Senate estimates if the program was “significantly underspent”, Jobs Services Australia’s group manager, Moya Drayton, said, “It is.”
The policy was part of the Liberal party’s plan to increase employment participation. It provides up to $6,000 for long-term-unemployed jobseekers if they move to a regional area to take up a job, or $3,000 if they move to a metropolitan area. The average cost of relocating somebody since the program started has been $2,186.
The relocation assistance is available to long-term unemployed jobseekers who have been on Newstart or youth allowance for more than 12 months. People relocating between capital cities or within capital cities will not be eligible.
