Benefit advocate and Welfare Expert Advisory Group member Kay Brereton is calling for some basic facts and empathy from political parties looking to fish for votes with beneficiary bashing.

Brereton says the call to put sanctions on people on benefits is proven not to work and to increase misery. “International research shows sanctions move people further from the labour market and reduce the likelihood of them moving into employment.

“There is a need to address the drivers of labour churn such as precarious work with few protections, rather than blaming people trapped in a cycle of low wages and unemployment.

“I see people who go onto the benefit each Christmas as their employers don’t want to pay statutory holiday entitlements.”

“The last time we had a National government they imposed a sanction regime where a person loses entitlement to benefit for 13 weeks if they decline an offer of suitable employment or fail to attend a job interview, these measures remained in place under the Labour government.

“People don’t have homes, they often don’t have access to a private bathroom, and they have maybe one set of clothes. I don’t think any political party understands this and the very real barriers faced by people on Jobseeker benefits.

“The latest welfare policy announcements are beneficiary bashing just like we see in every election campaign and seem to be based on anecdotes, a lack of understanding of the existing rules, and no understanding of the real struggles people on benefits face daily.

“More sanctions are just a policy to create more homelessness and more hungry children. People playing these political games with our most vulnerable need to look to the facts and reflect on their own sense of humanity.”

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