"Unemployed" or something else?

I have been going through someone else's "work" history and it makes interesting but very depressing reading.

This person did not finish school, did not finish the secretarial course they went to do instead and lasted just eleven weeks in the first position they were lucky enough to get. This was as a very junior office person and apparently it was "boring" and "I don't want to be stuck in an office all day". 

All right, find something else to do. They flitted from one thing to the next, a few weeks here, several months there. "No, I don't know what I want to do." 

There was marriage but the need to work to pay for the new house. That did not work either. There were still multiple jobs that were "boring". The marriage was dissolved. There was travel overseas on the money from the settlement although there were debts owing. 

Back here there were more low level jobs that never lasted. It was always someone else's fault when told employment would be terminated. The jobs were still "boring" and "nobody gives me anything interesting to do" and.... well, a litany of excuses. There was one course after another at TAFE but these were never quite finished. After all, finish the course and you might be qualified for something.

This person now "qualifies" for the age pension...and has done nothing of value in their life. I know of other people who are the same.

I also know of a man with Down Syndrome who has been in open employment all his working life. He retired at the end of last year. He needs a bit of help with his finances but he has his own unit and a regular income. When he retired, knowing he would need to feel useful, someone found him a role in a large charity facility. He was delighted to be "going to work again". I saw him yesterday and he gave me a cheerful wave as he was carting out rubbish. "Getting a bit dirty," he told me.

I pedalled on thinking to myself, "No, you aren't getting dirty. You have never been dirty. You are clean. It is the first person who has done no real work in their life who is dirty."

I am alarmed at how easy it is for someone who doesn't want to work to avoid the responsibility of doing just that. They are taking up places at TAFE that could be used by people who really do want to do the courses but are pushed to one side because these people have priority. The money being wasted on these policies is ridiculous. The "mutual obligation" requirement and the demand that applications be made is not working. 

If someone with Down Syndrome who can barely read and write can hold down a job for more than forty years then so can many others. Perhaps we need to change the way those avoiding work are being "paid"?