POds's Journal: Get paid for open source work

In Australia, we have this nifty thing called work for the dole (dole == government handouts). Some people are required to work for the dole (if they are already receiving it) and others can apply for it if eligible. What I want to know is, how long does it take people in the IT industry to find another job? Do IT non-profit organisations (open source projects for example) look for people on the dole who might have skills to do some work? Would unemployed IT professionals be happy doing work for the dole at an IT related non profit organisation that matched their skills instead of getting a job straight away? Would you rather find a job as quickly as possible? Would you like to do non profit work while looking for a job to gain more experience, increase skills or try to keep skill levels at where they are? I also think that during the last few years so many IT professional have lost their job, I'm wondering how many of them are still sitting on their bums receiving their dole checks when they could be putting their skills to use and not letting their skills diminish. Non profit organisations can apply through the government web-site to take advantage of this and also people looking for volunteer work can apply to search the database of non-profit organisations to volunteer their help. Also, I know its not much but those who do work for the dole get an extra $20 every 2 weeks. Of course I don't think this applies to any organisations out side of Australia, sorry :).

I curious because i've recently lost my job, and i wouldnt mind working on open source if i did take a long time for me to get a job. Open source work would let me aquire new skills or at the very least let me keep them at their current level. Im just wondering how many people out there actualy do work for the dole and get paid to work on a nonprofit organisation with whom is in the IT industry.