THE LINK BETWEEN POVERTY, UNEMPLOYMENT, AND SUICIDE

THE LINK BETWEEN POVERTY, UNEMPLOYMENT, AND SUICIDE

Over ten years (2001 to 2010) it was found four times as many unemployed men committed suicide than employed men. In the same period eight times as many unemployed women committed suicide than employed women. The data was taken from the national Coroners information system and applied in a retrospective study. (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25064642)

It's not only the unemployed that are committing suicide it is also the elderly. Let me recount to you a brief, sad story as told to me.

About two years ago, I was told by a pensioner that an elderly gentleman at the time had committed suicide the day before. As she was crying in front of me and several others, I believed that what she said was true. This is the story as I remember it.

There was a poor, elderly couple who were facing eviction from their home by the bank. It appeared there was no way to save the house except one. Unbeknown to the wife the husband decided to take his life so that his wife would have a roof over her head, by collecting on an old life insurance policy that he had so the wife could pay off the house.

It still makes me sad today when I think about the man’s sacrifice. No-one should be forced into poverty on inadequate social security benefits.

It’s time to change the rules. Australian citizens are entitled to a decent income in their old age or when they are disabled or unemployed. Right now approximately 6,000,000 adult Australians are living in poverty; I wonder how many children are also living in poverty? How long before half the adult population and their children live in poverty too? I'd rather that we prevented such a situation from occurring rather than trying to fix it.

The suffering and mental anguish of pensioners, unemployed, and homeless living in poverty are unnecessary when you consider that we live in a rich country. The laws regarding people's rights to social security have to change. Suicide is a national epidemic. Poverty, unemployment, and homelessness are among its leading causes!

Please, support this petition to help address the problem of poverty one of the leading causes of suicide. Spread the word on social media, change.org for the sake of those who can’t stand up for themselves.

Thank you for reading

Vito Lupis

The Petition

DO YOU APPROVE the proposed law for the alteration of the Constitution entitled-

"An act to alter the Constitution, so that Australian citizens in the event of unemployment or retirement, have the inalienable right to a non-taxable monetary allowance equivalent to the cost of living measured quarterly in each capital city by a committee of learned unemployed adults, without government interference on how the individual spends the allowance.”