Government admits removing work-test for benefits a disaster
The Government's reversal on work testing for sickness and invalid beneficiaries is a massive back-down, says
National's social services spokesperson Katherine Rich.
"Labour scrapped National's capacity testing and Steve Maharey has spent years lecturing the public on why it didn't
work. Now Steve Maharey is bringing it back, but with a different name. Perhaps it is because of opinion polls showing
that Labour's soft attitude to welfare is completely out of touch with the public.
"The Minister can call his new work-testing programme "capacity testing" or whatever he chooses but only a moron would
believe that it is anything other than a work test by another name.
"Labour's removal of work testing was a step backwards for welfare in New Zealand and the burgeoning sickness and
invalids rolls are the direct result.
"In 3 short years over 14,500 people have been added to the invalids benefit register and over 5000 people to the
sickness benefit register. That's an increase of over 20% - a rate that cannot be explained by population growth or
expected rates of illness and sickness.
"Despite having enjoyed the best economic conditions in a generation, both benefits are predicted by Treasury to
increase dramatically. Unless significant reforms are implemented our economy will continue to buckle under the
increasing welfare problem. The cost for Invalid Benefits is predicted to increase from $830 million to $1.2 billion by
2007 [1].
"While National welcomes the Minister's acceptance that work-testing must play a part in getting beneficiaries into some
kind of work, his ideological opposition to the use of sanctions means that his powder-puff version of work-testing is
unlikely to achieve much.
"WINZ Case Managers tell me that as a result of Labour's relaxation of the welfare system, they are powerless to do
anything in the face of a beneficiary who can contribute but refuses to do so," said Mrs Rich.