The first thing that should be noted is that the most persons featured in this series are all in social housing. In the first episode 3 are in social housing where the cost of their rent is capped at 25% of their payment and one person is given housing for free under crisis housing. Crisis housing is limited and you're only allowed access for a very short term, not all are free either. The show implies that social housing is something you accept as a last resort. This is simply not true. Social housing has strict rules for eligibility and waiting lists are extremely long. Long enough that your small children are more than likely to be grown up and moved out by the time you are offered a place. That's if you don't get kicked off the list for no longer meeting eligibility requirements. A very conservative estimate of private housing costs would be more than 70% of the payment with rent assistance factored in. In my own personal situation my rent is 80% of the payment, I'm lucky and grateful that I am sometimes offered perhaps 2 paid shifts a month serving other welfare recipients.
They also show a food charity services distributing free healthy food. This is extremely is misleading. Most of these services give unhealthy food and frequently run out of food in the early morning. The person shown accessing this service has IBS and his symptoms would likely be exacerbated by the food received. Many charity food programs had already closed down well before the pandemic hit due to rising costs. Leaving vast areas of Australia without any. Other assistance charity programs have a limited budget in each area and once it is exhausted they shut down. Meanwhile the same charity in the neighbouring area still has funding but will not allow persons outside of their region to receive assistance.
The show implies that if you have a disability, you receive Disability Support Pension. This is simply not true. DSP is extremely hard to acquire. The government routinely declines applications and disabled persons are left on Jobseeker payment and required to actively look for work and provide evidence each month or be penalised. These people include persons with multiple limb losses, cancer sufferers on chemo, the wheelchair bound and people with brain injuries requiring full time carers.
Lastly, they show people who choose to smoke, enforcing the stereotype of all people on welfare blowing their money on cigarettes. This is a complete myth, the average welfare recipient does not. All the persons I care for are welfare recipients, and those things are rarely able to be hidden from workers in my position.
