Key points:
- The Government has announced new sanctions under a “traffic light system” for beneficiaries who don’t fulfill their obligations
- The Prime Minister says it’s about rights and responsibilities but he hasn’t spoken with beneficiaries about the changes
- Opposition and beneficiary advocates say it’s unfair and “kicking people when they are down”.
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon says he hasn’t personally discussed the Government’s benefit changes with job seekers.
New sanctions are on the way for beneficiaries who do not meet their obligations, the Government announced yesterday.
Luxon told Breakfast this morning: “We’ve got a welfare safety net, we want to make sure that people are supported in tough times, that’s really important to all New Zealanders. It’s certainly important to our Government.”
He stressed that yesterday’s move was focused on Jobseeker Support recipients.
“Park to one side the sole parent or the supported living payments, which are quite different.”
He said, of Kiwis on the Jobseeker benefit: “Their job is to actually be looking for work and doing everything that they can – and the obligations are pretty light.
“They’re like: Generate a CV, show up and talk to your case manager, show up for the interviews.
“[The] vast majority of people [are] really compliant, fully meeting their obligations.
“But there are a small number of people who actually are not compliant with those obligations.”
Asked whether he’d spoken to beneficiaries about the changes, Luxon said: “I haven’t personally.
“But it’s been a policy of ours since before the election and we’ve just said it’s about fairness, and it’s about rights and responsibilities.
“That’s the deal that we have with each other in New Zealand.”
‘A series of escalations’
Luxon said “the vast majority” of job seekers will be in the green zone of the new traffic light system.
“When you’re not compliant, haven’t met your obligations, haven’t shown up for an interview, haven’t got your CV together, whatever – after prompting, you go to what’s called amber.
“Then you go into red and at red, yes, there’s a series of escalations of sanctions where you may be on money management, you may lose half your benefit, you may lose the whole benefit.”
The measures were about getting job seekers into work, he added.
“That is fundamentally better for them, their families and their future.
“What we’re talking about here is people on the Jobseeker benefit who are deemed able to work, can work and should be working.”
Pressed on whether he should’ve spoken to beneficiaries about the changes, the Prime Minister said Social Development Minister Louise Upston and her Ministry had met with job seekers.
“But I’d just ask you to take a step back and say, we’re focusing on a very small number of people I think, that actually are not meeting their obligations,” he said. “We want to get people into work, that’s what this has to be about.
“It’s not about penalising people or sanctioning people who are not getting a job, it’s about doing everything you can and taking your responsibility seriously to prepare yourself to be able to take that job.”
‘Pain and misery’ – opposition parties respond
Labour said the approach was “punitive” while the Green Party said it inflicted “pain and misery” on people in poverty.
Labour leader Chris Hipkins said the Government’s announcement showed its “willingness to kick people when they’re down”.
“They like to pick on people on benefits rather than actually focusing on creating jobs, growing the economy and getting people into good, well-paid work. They don’t have a plan for that.”
Greens social development and employment spokesperson Ricardo Menéndez March said: “People deserve to live in dignity, they deserve to be supported in times of need.”
He said the Government had shown “little ambition or interest” in addressing poverty.
Auckland Action Against Poverty spokesperson Brooke Pao Stanley told RNZ’s Morning Report sanctions didn’t work and did more harm than good.
“It further exacerbates people who are stressed out and communities at their threshold, and it’s unjust.
“I think the barriers [to getting people into work] are the culture at Work and Income, I think the barriers are the priority that society places on people to be in work, and often work that isn’t meaningful to them.”
