only around 28% of unemployed people in australia receive any unemployment benefit.

this seems to be the elephant in the room in policy discourse on income support and unemployment.

https://aph.gov.au/About_Parliament/Parliamentary_Departments/Parliamentary_Library/pubs/rp/rp1819/Quick_Guides/NILF

folks just proceed along with rhetoric that implies unemployed people generally get an unemployment benefit, in blissful (wilful?) ignorance

this is a point i genuinely believe ordinary australians don't understand. i think they think if they lose their job, they can get the dole. they have less social protection than they believe.

and i think elite policy discourse has really failed them by not making this clear

as a start, instead of talking about income support for the unemployed, let's aim for more accurate language. "income support for just over a quarter of the unemployed"

a significant caveat to the above is that some the unemployed would be receiving the disability support payment. still, a very large portion will not be receiving income support