Long-term unemployment, defined as receiving unemployment payments for more than 12 months, imposes significant economic and social costs. It accelerates skill erosion, reduces the likelihood of re-entering paid work, weakens social networks and undermines overall wellbeing.

Workforce Australia’s responses, through flagship programs such as Work for the Dole, have been shown to provide minimal benefit, with only 11 per cent of participants transitioning into employment that removes them from income support for six months or more. The Department of Social Services Economic Inclusion Advisory Committee recently confirmed that Work for the Dole is inadequate, fails to promote meaningful social participation and exposes job seekers to safety risks. The Committee recommended replacing it with initiatives that offer genuine support to people excluded from the labour market.

Buried within Australia’s mutual obligations framework is a largely overlooked policy opportunity. Unemployed people aged over 55 can fully satisfy their mutual obligations by choosing to complete 30 hours per fortnight of voluntary work with a government approved community organisation. Building on the success of this policy, there is strong potential to extend it to unemployed people under 55, offering a pathway for meaningful engagement rather than merely fulfilling a compliance requirement.

Expanding voluntary work for the dole

Mutual obligations for unemployed people under 55 are currently shaped by a compliance heavy, work first system. This approach limits voluntary work and requires it to be combined with other activities, such as paid work or approved study.

Given the poor outcomes of this framework, mounting evidence suggests that extending unrestricted voluntary work to under 55s offers a constructive alternative. A Senate committee review of mutual obligations found that, unlike Work for the Dole, volunteering strengthened autonomy and reduced social exclusion. The review presented the case that volunteering builds skills,  broadens career exposure—including a SEEK survey showing 95 per cent of employers view it as equally credible to paid work—strengthens civic engagement and social networks, supports mental health and delivers tangible community benefits. This emphasis on volunteering is also reflected in state-level initiatives such as the NSW Government’s partnership with SEEK Volunteer, which connects thousands of people to volunteer roles through the NSW Volunteer Recruitment Portal.

Despite its many benefits, the Senate review documented several case studies showing that meaningful voluntary contributions were routinely dismissed by Employment Service Providers in favour of Work for the Dole placements that undermined personal autonomy and motivation and prioritised low value activities. Examples included a PhD‑qualified medical librarian volunteering at a hospital who was redirected to a factory‑based Work for the Dole placement, and an unemployed solicitor volunteering at a community legal centre who faced a similar outcome.

In light of the Senate review, a trial of expanding voluntary work was recommended in the Parliamentary Report, Rebuilding Employment Services, which states that the success of this trial “be defined around improvements in capability, health, mental health, connectedness, self esteem, skills, and confidence rather than expecting entry into open employment in the first instance.” ​The Department of Social Services  has also supported this approach, noting submissions from organisations such as Single Mother Families Australia, which call for voluntary work to count towards mutual obligations for people under 55.

In response to this evidence, voluntary work opportunities were extended in April 2025 to Carer Allowance recipients and, in a major win for unemployed artists, professional art activities—such as organising commissioned artwork and volunteering at a gallery—now satisfy mutual obligations.  These reforms prompt a wider discussion on the value of extending self-directed voluntary obligations to all unemployed people. In collaboration with National Shelter and the Justice and Peace Office, academics at Western Sydney University are now consolidating this case.

Reform implications for people experiencing unemployment

People experiencing unemployment are not a single, uniform group. They have different goals, constraints, capacities and relationships to paid work. Firstly, it must be recognised that many unemployed people would simply not choose to undertake 30 hours per fortnight of voluntary work with an approved organisation. For this group, expanding the policy would neither impose additional obligations nor relieve them of existing ones.

A second group, comprising 78 per cent of people who are unemployed, return to work within a year. For them, volunteering, if chosen, serves only as a short-term stepping stone. And they undertake it alongside engagement with employment services, training and job search on their path to the job and income they are set to secure. Expanding voluntary opportunities for this group would also have no adverse impact.

A third group comprises 22 per cent experiencing long-term unemployment, some of whom would choose volunteering as a meaningful way to fulfil mutual obligations. As they are not returning to paid work quickly or in large numbers, they stand to gain most from this reform, which offers a constructive alternative to exclusion from paid employment and the social marginalisation that follows. Across all groups, restricting this opportunity is unjustified, and the choice to volunteer should be extended.

Broader benefits of the reform

Expanding voluntary work for the dole to younger Australians would also deliver wider social and economic benefits. Volunteering strengthens social cohesion, community resilience and societal wellbeing. National analyses demonstrate that volunteering achieved a 4.3 per cent uplift in population wellbeing and 14 per cent productivity gains in 2023, alongside very strong economic returns—about $5 for every $1 invested—with broader estimates placing volunteering’s economic contribution at $566 billion.

However, with time poverty rising, volunteering has been declining since 2006 and remains below 2019 levels. Community and government organisations relying on volunteers are strained, especially during natural disasters.

Expanding voluntary Work for the Dole to younger Australians could both shore up the volunteer ecosystem and generate wider community benefits, in line with the government’s National Strategy for Volunteering 2023-2033. Socially valuable activities—care work, environmental repair, and community initiatives—have long relied on volunteer labour but could play a larger role. Examples include reuse and circular economy projects, climate mitigation efforts, home retrofits that improve energy efficiency and community activation that strengthens collective resilience. Importantly, as Artificial Intelligence reshapes work, it could also help build resilience and self-sufficiency among those most affected. As with any publicly supported volunteering, policy safeguards have been established to ensure voluntary activities complement rather than displace paid employment.

Volunteering and social inclusion

Public and community housing tenants experience higher levels of social exclusion than residents in other tenures. Extending voluntary work opportunities would support initiatives in these communities, including tenant participation programs, such as community food gardens, food and clothing distribution, repair-and-share programs, social and arts activities and tenancy-related commitments. Just as with volunteering more generally, tenant participation has been found to strengthen tenants’ sense of ownership and belonging while building skills that support broader social engagement.

The fact that volunteering is seldom recognised as fully satisfying mutual obligations creates a rigid binary in which people excluded from paid employment are often left with long-term welfare dependency as their only remaining option. This policy gap leaves tenant participation programs underutilised and insufficiently engaged.  In environments with an existing culture of participation, supported volunteering could reinforce and stabilise established practices.

Mutual obligations that recognise self-directed volunteering within NGOs would also align with First Nations practices of mutual aid and represent a significant step towards restoring the self-determination that was once central to Indigenous programs such as the Community Development and Employment Program. This is a core request being made by First Nations communities.

Though only a small change, this policy reform represents a substantial shift toward a more self-directed, less paternalistic and more inclusive vision for mutual obligations.

Dr Alex Baumann is an academic at Western Sydney University whose research explores practical policy approaches to support local mutual aid on common land, helping to address the social and environmental challenges of market centred work and housing. His work on recognised volunteering in public housing aims to develop policy pathways that reflect traditional commoning, fostering collective care, participation and stronger communities.

Dr Emily Wolfinger is an Associate Lecturer in Sociology at Western Sydney University. She studies the social and institutional settings that shape caregiving – how we value care, how welfare discourse frames families and care and how policy might better recognise and support care and foster more caring social worlds.

The authors would like to acknowledge Chris Baulman, a public housing and voluntary work community activist, and the Neighbourhood That Works Project, where the central argument of this article was developed. Additional important contributions to this article were made by the following Western Sydney University academics: Dr Emma Power, Associate Professor of Geography and Urban Studies and Head of Discipline for Geography, Planning, Tourism and Humanitarian and Development Studies; Dr Jenna Condie, Senior Lecturer in Digital Society; Dr Neil Perry, Professor and Chief Economist, Centre for Western Sydney and School of Business, and Dr Stephen Healy, Associate Professor of Human Geography and Urban Studies.

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