By Kim Choe
Beneficiary numbers have risen by 60,000 since National took office three years ago.
The party is proposing sweeping welfare reforms to try and get more people into work. But Labour says National doesn’t have a plan for where the jobs will come from.
Prime Minister John Key has been trying hard to drum up support for National’s proposed benefit overhaul, which will see many beneficiaries relabelled “job seekers”.
“We need a benefit system that focuses on what people can do, rather than what they can’t do,” he said.
National says that what they can do, is work.
Solo parents on the DPB will be expected to look for fulltime work when their child reaches 14. That is after being tested for part time work when their child turned five.
If they have another child while on the DPB, they’ll be tested for part time work when that child turns one.
All sickness beneficiaries will also be worktested.
National says the changes will save the Government $1 billion over the next four years.
But some say it’s a negative move.
“It’s not a welfare reform, it’s welfare destruction, welfare devastation, welfare elimination,” says Mana Party leader Hone Harawira.
“It’s not good sending people out unskilled, when the job market still needs people. So it’s about bringing back programmes that help people on benefits get the skills they need to be able to contribute to their community,” says Labour leader Phil Goff.
To encourage this, Labour says it will pay the equivalent of the dole to employers who take on apprentices.
It is also planning to pay beneficiaries more – extending the $60 Working For Families tax credit to parents on benefits – part of a $2.6 billion plan to lift children out of poverty.
“We were very pleased when Labour adopted our policy about extending Working For Families to the poorest children in our country,” says Green Party co-leader Russel Norman. “By investing in our poorest children, not only is it the right thing to do to get kids out of poverty, but it’s a long-term investment for New Zealand.”
National is sticking to its line.
“I think we have to do the best we can for our most vulnerable children and I think in one way if we can, getting those families into work is the most substantial change we can make,” says Mr Key.
But with unemployment numbers remaining stagnant even through the Rugby World Cup, it might not be as simple as that.
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