I’m a teenager. Here’s why the JobKeeper allowance must change

With more than 100,000 Australian teenagers out of work, the world has fallen from beneath them.

For many teenagers - including myself - the idea of seeing a virus that some used to make TikToks about, change Australia as we know it, is unfathomable.

As willing as the Australian government has been in supporting workers through the JobKeeper Assistance packages, many teenagers who need it most and have bills, expenses and liabilities have simply been hung out to dry.

To qualify for assistance one criteria that needs to be met is for a casual worker to have worked at the same job for over 12 months.

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Forgive me if I am wrong, but the entire reason for casual work is to enable job flexibility?

Many young people simply haven’t even had the opportunity to be in the workforce for over 12 months.

It’s wrong to assume that since someone moves jobs, they are less qualified for government assistance in this time of crisis.

Consideration needs to be given to the fact that many teenagers haven’t had any sort of opportunity to get a leg up in life and buy assets like a house to build a personal safety net.

Like every generation before us, we are too young to have any sort of considerable super saved up so in all honesty without government assistance, there is no plan B.

Just because many teenages don’t have the security like many older Australians doesn’t make us lazy.

Yes, older millennials would have more debt, responsibility and dependants but it is all relative. All my friends have part time jobs, many of whom consistently work 6-8 hours shifts for minimum pay.

Being casual workers, not a single one of them has stayed at the same job for more than 12 months which of course means, no government assistance. Within the last month, all have lost their jobs.

With only a thousand or two dollars to their name, almost all are out of money from just trying to cover their basic expenses. Last month, one took a loan out to pay for their computer for university.

Unless somehow money grows on trees, keeping up with repayments is not an option.

Unfortunately for the government to assume parents can pull us teenagers through this crisis, many have also lost their jobs or are under immense strain meaning helping out is not an option.

The most logical answer would be to lower the casual employment requirements for the JobKeeper allowance from 12 months to a more reasonable 6 months.

I’m not a teenager who needs the JobKeeper but there are so many who do, including my close friends.

The cost will be large, yes, but the upside is so much larger. We cannot have teenagers pulling out of university to take on more low paying part time work, taking out unpayable debts on credit cards and being hung out to dry and fend for themselves.

Us teenagers are the future of Australia and to be given an olive branch in this time of crisis, would make the struggle all that more bearable.

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