One of the key elements touted in the October 2020 federal budget, JobMaker promised $4 billion over two years in taxpayer funds to pay employers to hire workers under the age of 30.
The hiring credit paid employers up to $200 a week for creating new jobs for people aged 16 to 29 years who were on JobSeeker, Youth Allowance or the Parenting Payment, and $100 a week for 30- to 35-year-olds.
"New hires must work for at least 20 hours a week. All businesses, other than the major banks, will be eligible," Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said in his speech.
"Treasury estimates that this will support around 450,000 jobs for young people."
But previously secret Treasury documents from the middle of this year reveal that just 5,278 people had been hired using the JobMaker hiring credit, or around 1 per cent of the original budget forecast.
Treasury documents provided to the ABC under an FOI request.(ABC News: Alistair Kroie)
Big promise
The program was one of the big-ticket items in last year's federal budget, but the amount of people helped into work could be even lower than that number.
Documents from inside Treasury, released using the Freedom of Information (FOI) process further reveal that "the count of individuals may include an employee more than once where they change the employer who is claiming for them".
Treasury documents provided to ABC News under an FOI request.(ABC News: Alistair Kroie)
Between October 7 last year and July 6, 2021 there were 4,081 companies — described as 'entities' with an Australian Business Number (ABN) — that had a processed claim through the scheme.
Again, that could be overstating it.
"The number of entities with a processed claim form includes forms that may be subject to a payment suppression including for eligibility checks or compliance action, or have resulted in a nil claim," the document said.
The application only sought data back to February, but Treasury provided figures for the full life of the scheme up to July.
Access to three further documents about Treasury's response to the scheme was refused because they were linked to deliberations of the Cabinet, a select group of key ministers.
More employed than pre-pandemic
Mr Frydenberg pointed to the strength of the economy — and job creation — as a reason the $4 billion set aside for the JobMaker hiring credit was under-subscribed.
"With a world leading and stronger than expected economic recovery an estimates variation was made in the last budget, with Treasury estimating the hiring credit payments to total $93 million from 2020-21 to 2022-2023," he said.
Unemployment is at its lowest level in a decade — and powered past its pre-COVID rate faster than similar developed nations.
Another potential reason for the under-performance of JobMaker: a similar $3.9 billion wage subsidy that pays for half of the wages of a first-year apprentice (then 10 per cent of the second year and 5 per cent of the third). That scheme called Boosting Apprenticeship Commencements has been extended due to high demand.
Nothing in employment
The government department in charge of employment was asked for its assessment of the JobMaker program.
An FOI request made to the Department of Education, Skills and Employment for quarterly reports about the implementation of the JobMaker program, also known as the JobMaker Hiring Credit scheme, was refused.
The decision was made because "all reasonable steps have been taken to identify documents falling within the scope of your request" and none were found according to the person who was authorised to make the decision.
"I am satisfied that the documents you have requested do not exist," wrote Jacki, who did not give a surname.
The rejection of the request does not mean the department has not assessed the JobMaker program, just that the FOI application was unsuccessful.
Comments