In Australia’s welfare sector obligations are ‘mutual’, but profits flow only one way

Those on the jobseeker payment may be sent to work for the dole, or a training course, which is sometimes run by the same company as the provider. Photograph: David Mariuz/AAP

Two words make the money go round in Australia’s multi-billion dollar welfare-to-work industry: mutual obligation.

When someone loses their job and applies for the dole, they are sent to an outsourced job agency to get help looking for work. It triggers a payment to the provider – and the possibility of more to come.