• Full Story

Govt's youth employment plan under fire

Email
Print

Thu, 23 Feb 2012 12:17p.m.

Paula Bennett

Paula Bennett

The Government is being urged not to hand over youth employment services to private providers.

The Green Party says it's "a risky ideological experiment" that's been tried overseas and failed.

The proposal is part of wide-ranging welfare reforms the Government is considering, and the Treasury has warned that private providers could exploit the system.

Documents obtained by Radio New Zealand under the Official Information Act show the Treasury told the Government it would be difficult to audit and monitor the effectiveness of privately run employment programmes.

The services help young beneficiaries find work or set them up with training and the Treasury questioned the ability of private providers to do that.

It said numbers could be inflated and it would be hard to establish how many young people were actually involved.

Green's co-leader Metiria Turei says it was tried in Britain and was a disaster.

She's citing a House of Commons report that says private providers delivered poor results and under-estimated the difficulty of the task.

"Private provision of youth employment services is nothing less than corporate welfare which will feather the nests of the providers' executives and shareholders," she said on Thursday.

Social development minister Paula Bennett says the documents are from April last year and a lot of work has been done on the proposal since then.

"There are always risks associated with change but there's little chance of private providers cheating the system," she said.

NZN

Become a fan of 3 News on Facebook and on Twitter.

Post a Comment

Before commenting, please take the time to read our moderation guide


(Won't be published)



Comments

27 Feb 2012 05:02p.m.

pondering wrote:

@ Christopher . I am at the tail end of a the last generation that was considered lazy and immature if they stayed at school until 16yr. It was usual to leave school at 14 or 15yr to go straight into a job possibly an apprenticeship. Many of those my age and a little older are finding themselves unexpectedly on the dole or DPB queue vainly hoping for work and worrying how to get kids fed, maybe feeling bad about what they cannot do for grandkids, watching their own grown kids struggling to find work. Times are tough out there for most. That is not what we were promised in our future 30 years ago.

27 Feb 2012 09:36a.m.

Christopher wrote:

@Alex
I recognise that the overall unemployment is a reflection of there being a lack of jobs. One also has to look at and recognise what sort of people are constantly unemployed.

While I agree I should have taken a more open minded veiw to my argument, as I was writing it all I could think of was the number of people I saw leave school when they were sixteen. I still see mulling around town day after day doing nothing three years on.

Lastly nice one taking a stab at my own career prospects. I'm not auctually that stupid to think that my own future is that rosey just because I'm going into a proffession traditionally known for having an abundance of jobs. I've heard many stories about new graduates struggling to find jobs. It worries me deeply.

25 Feb 2012 05:09p.m.

Alex wrote:

Christopher: You're making unfounded assumptions about other people. The youth unemployment rate is 20% - which is a reflection of a *lack of jobs,* not a reflection of people's laziness. You're one of the lucky few. I don't know anyone who doesn't want a job. It's depressing as hell to be made to feel useless, as if all the work you've put into becoming qualified, building up your CV, was all for nothing. And before you get too gung-ho about your job-getting abilities, plenty of nursing students don't find jobs in New Zealand. They go to Australia not because of the money, but because this country and this government slams the door in their face and denies them a future here.

25 Feb 2012 10:26a.m.

Kevin Middleton wrote:

Bennett=resign,Most comments here hit the mark perfectly.Justify paying an invalid $7.00 per year for transport costs,then you enforce them to....work,they first have to walk to do that,then afford to get there,then they have to find work that pays there debt because you only pay them $5.00 per week for power/gas/heating..."who feeds the kids"....bloody idiot.

24 Feb 2012 10:53a.m.

Christopher wrote:

Sometimes I wonder how much some of my [youth] peers auctually want to work.

I started a job hunt in order for myself to make enough money to move out of home while I continue to study nursing this year.

I've had two job offers within a week of my hunt. Which has suprised me begining my search I was relatively pesimistic that I would find anything quickly. But as I was told at one interveiw which I was later offered my job; 'Your an excellent candidate for the position. Your well spoken, well dressed, have a friendly personality and come off as being very mature'.

To my fellow 'youth'; Stop the drinking. Take out the piercings. Lose the attitude. Stop dying your hair crazy colours and most importantly do look and act a respectable person.

23 Feb 2012 04:47p.m.

Kim wrote:

The old style community work schemes and ppp schemes of the early 80's were a great success why not go back to a modern version of that? govt owned and run. The problem with private is that the ceo's will award themselves 500 000 dollar paychecks.

23 Feb 2012 12:36p.m.

Robo wrote:

Surely after the fiassco of so many "training institutes" being shut down or having tax payer funds greatly reduced due to dodgy records of how many students were actually attending or how many students should NOT have passed any or some of their exams, the goverment would have learnt that the same type of charactors are going to do exactly the same through this scheme which is RIP the Tax Payer OFF.

23 Feb 2012 12:33p.m.

Neil wrote:

Hasn't this been tried enough times already under both colours of government and produced nothing more than groups of rogue companies set up just to take the money and not offer any long term work once the governments money has been used?