Louise Upston: Last call to Jobseekers before the free ride ends

National policy will hand Jobseekers on a benefit longer than a year who get a job and stay off welfare for 12 months a $1000 payment. Photo / 123rf, File

Opinion

OPINION

Understanding the complexity of New Zealand's welfare system is almost a full-time job - and I speak from experience, having been National's Social Development spokesperson for five years now.

It would be easy to be swayed or confused by one set of numbers or trends, only to have that countered by eligibility to a programme or set of entitlements that most people who have no interaction with the Ministry of Social Development would ever have heard of. Mana in Mahi, Jobseeker, Flexi-Wage, He Poutama Rangitahi, Accommodation Supplement the list goes on and on, and within those entitlements, there are more adjustments depending on whether you have children, a permanent or temporary illness, disabilities, or part-time work.

But here's a simple truth: with businesses up and down the country crying out for workers, there are currently 170,000 people receiving the Jobseeker or unemployment benefit and 13,000 of them are young people who've been receiving it for longer than a year. Who thinks that is acceptable in a time of high employment? Not National. Probably not most taxpayers.

Perhaps only the Labour Government, under whose watch the number of young people on a benefit long-term has doubled during their time in office, despite funding an additional 2300 staff at MSD. As usual, Labour's response is to spend more money, hire more public servants and not achieve anything.

National's view is that if the Government can't help get these young people into work now, it never will. The Government points to its Mana in Mahi programme that is placing people in jobs – but almost half those being assisted by that programme were not even on a benefit when they began their placement. On average, fewer than 200 every year are young people who have been on benefit longer than 12 months. National's view is that that's simply not good enough.

Louise Upston. Photo / Rachel Canning, File

It stands to reason that the people on the Jobseeker benefit for more than a year during a time of high employment are either those who have particular challenges in finding or holding down a job, so need extra help, or they're people who don't want to work.

At the National Party's annual conference last weekend, leader Christopher Luxon announced a new Welfare that Works policy, specifically targeting these young people that Labour is ignoring. National won't continue to fund failure and since the Ministry of Social Development is demonstrably unable to help this group, National's policy is to bring in community providers who can. We're proposing that community providers have job coaches who work with each Jobseeker to determine their needs and develop an individualised plan to move them towards work that is appropriate for their circumstances. This is the heart of the policy. As a bonus, if a Jobseeker who's been on a benefit longer than a year gets a job and stays off welfare for 12 months, they get a $1000 payment.

On the other hand, for those who wilfully refuse to engage with their programme, the free ride ends. Sanctions will range from money management of benefit payments to suspension or even cancellation of payments. National is clear: for those who are able to work, obligations, not just entitlements, need to be explicit. Taxpayers are owed nothing less.

Labour loves to characterise National as uncaring but when you know that a person who goes on a benefit under the age of 20 is likely to spend about 12 years of their life on welfare, the best way to avoid the personal, social and financial costs that come with dependency is to ensure that a benefit is merely a short stop-gap support measure, not a way of life. That is what National's policy will achieve.

• Louise Upston is National Party spokesperson for Social Development and Employment.