Editorial - Welfare reform is long overdue

So far, this election has failed to pull the public's attention away from Sonny Bill, Kim's divorce and Justin Bieber's new hairdo.

Maybe that is the idea. John Key seems to be playing softly softly, feeling safe of a win.

Why stir up the public with hard-line policies?

Even the announcement of National's proposed welfare reform has been welcomed, with an online poll finding 63 per cent of readers agreed with it.

The changes would mean single parents who have another baby while on a benefit have to seek work when that baby turns 1, and solo parents to seek part-time work when their youngest child turns 5 and full-time work when they turn 14.

Whatever side of the political fence you sit on, it is not hard to argue that welfare reform is long overdue. The benefits system is hideously complex to an outsider. But that hasn't stopped more than 12 per cent of working-age New Zealanders mastering it.

It is costing $8 billion a year.

While it is the duty of society to look after its more vulnerable members - including the sick and disabled who must be helped - the New Zealand system is a haven for welfare lifers, breeding bludgers and lazy moaners.

To get more people off benefits and into work is a good thing, not just for cost cutting but for societal reasons. We already have a young generation with a massive sense of entitlement. Imagine how much worse that sense will be for a child who grows up in a home where neither parent wants to work.

More than half of people on benefits have been on welfare for more than five years.

The usual critics have come out with claims that the Government is doing its usual DPB bashing. Hardly, $130 million is being spent on assisting, training and upskilling people back to work.

Being a single parent must be enormously difficult. Being a double parent certainly is. But we had the kids and we must take responsibility for their upbringing, too. The welfare system as it stands removes people's responsibility and motivation.

It is, of course, enormously difficult for a mother, single or not, to find a job that fits in with family. The cost of childcare often means that you take home little on a net basis. Single parents may make a loss, working without childcare subsidies.

If you are a mother seeking a part-time, or school-hours job, it is not only hard to find but likely to be low skilled and low paid.

But it is not governments that create jobs but the private sector, and in New Zealand that is a majority of small or medium-sized businesses.

Giving these businesses incentives to employ flexi- or part-time workers, mothers returning to work or people coming off the benefit would make good sense.

Continuing to look at how childcare for working parents can be both high quality and affordable is also essential.

The welfare reform policy is a good first step, but will not work without other investment in how to get people - particularly parents - back into work.