KEY POINTS:
The ministry aiming to rein in rising sickness and invalid beneficiary numbers warns it might take some time to achieve a turnaround.
Rising sickness and invalid benefit numbers have been in the spotlight as the unemployment register tumbles, and this week the National Party labelled the Government "lousy" at getting people off sickness welfare.
But the Ministry of Social Development's general manager of working age people's policy, Sue Mackwell, yesterday said dealing with sickness and invalid beneficiaries was more complicated than dealing with those on the dole.
The extra focus the ministry had put on the two high-profile benefits over the past two to three years had yielded some lessons.
"I think we underestimated the complexity involved in some of these people's lives," Ms Mackwell said.
"Often there may be a chronic physical condition like diabetes or rheumatoid arthritis, but that's often associated with a lower-level mental illness as well."
A "one size fits all" approach would not work with sickness and invalid beneficiaries, who needed different types of support and services from those on the dole.
Sickness and invalid benefit numbers have risen over the past seven years, in stark contrast to other welfare payments.
National Party welfare spokeswoman Judith Collins said she had heard anecdotally that the ministry's focus on getting people off the dole had meant some people turning up to get the unemployment benefit were instead moved in the direction of the sickness benefit.
That might appeal to some people because "you don't get hassled as much", she said.
Anecdotally there was also talk that people on the sickness benefit were running cash payment lawnmowing businesses on the side, Ms Collins said.
But the ministry said the rise in sickness and invalid benefit numbers was not a result of too much focus going on to the dole queue at the expense of other benefits.
Ms Mackwell said New Zealand was not the only country grappling with the sickness and invalid benefit trend, which was also being seen in Australia and Britain.
The ageing population was a factor, as well as the fact that society had become more willing in the past 20 years to acknowledge mental illness and stress.
She also strongly disputed the view that people were being moved off the dole and on to the sickness benefit.
Over the past seven years a net 28,000 people had moved from the unemployment benefit to the sickness benefit, but that represented only about 8 per cent of the 949,000 dole cancellations that had gone through over the same period.
It was also important to remember that many of the people on the two benefits now under scrutiny genuinely deserved them, she said.
It was not possible to keep an eye on all clients all of the time.
She argued that beneficiaries playing golf and lawn-mowing were the minority.
A Government bill which has just been reported back to the House from a select committee will introduce a new level of dialogue between sickness and invalid beneficiaries and Work and Income.
Sickness Benefit
* Recipients have increased by 46 per cent since the end of 1999.
* Payments are identical to the unemployment benefit.
* Eligibility requires a medical certificate, the first of which lasts up to four weeks.
* Around a quarter of recipients are Maori.
* Over a third have psychological or psychiatric conditions.
* Two per cent have been on the sickness benefit for 10 years or more continuously, while 48 per cent have been recipients for less than one year.
Invalid Benefit
* Recipients have increased 47 per cent since the end of 1999.
* Payments are higher than the unemployment benefit.
* To qualify a person must be 16 or over and be unable to regularly work 15 hours or more a week because of a sickness, injury, or disability which is expected to last at least two years
or
* A person must have less than two years' life expectancy and be unable to regularly work 15 hours or more a week
or
* A person must be blind.
* Just over a quarter have psychological or psychiatric conditions.
* Almost 30 per cent have been receiving the invalid's benefit for 10 years or more.
