By VERNON SMALL and NZPA
Beneficiaries have been given a "cast-iron guarantee" that their income will not fall under a universal benefit mooted by Social Services Minister Steve Maharey.
The Government has previously said it is working towards a single benefit for everyone on welfare, except superannuitants, which it hopes to have in place by 2002.
Mr Maharey told the social services select committee the last Labour Government looked at a universal benefit in 1990 but lost office before it could be put in place. The add-ons and three-tiered nature of the system developed during the 1990s was overly complicated. He said the Coalition wanted a simple system.
There would be a core benefit to give people security of income, but full benefits would be tailored to individual needs.
"We are saying you can walk in and get your core benefit," he said.
Other add-ons, if a beneficiary had children or transport needs, could be adjusted to suit the individual at the discretion of staff at the Department of Work and Income. That discretion would be operated within budgets given to regional commissioners.
The minister said some other countries were also moving towards tailoring benefits to individuals.
National's spokeswoman on work and income, Belinda Vernon, said the idea being floated by Mr Maharey and officials indicated that little work had been done on the concept.
"If [the minister] is talking about simplifying the system, that is the last thing he is doing."
Mr Maharey said the Government also wanted to ensure people were moved on the road towards independence.
"The benefit system as you know at the moment is very much a trap," he said.
The Government would provide incentives to the department in a new purchase agreement to lift its performance.
Mr Maharey said if the department managed to exceed its job placement targets, the money saved on unemployment benefits could be spent on finding more jobs for beneficiaries.
The department could also get more funds if it beat targets for getting "difficult to place" job-seekers into stable employment.
The Government will scrap the work for the dole, or community wage, scheme next July, replacing it with the unemployment benefit. A separate non-work-tested sickness benefit will be reinstated.
The unemployed and sole parents will still be work-tested, however, as part of their "job-seeker agreement" with the Department of Work and Income.
Earlier, the department's chief executive, Christine Rankin, told MPs she was confident her agency could meet new performance targets set out in an agreement with the Government.
Specific targets included 10,600 jobs for people who had been unemployed for between six months and two years; 2600 jobs for people who had been unemployed for between two and four years; and 600 jobs for people who had been unemployed for more than four years.
It wanted to increase by 3 per cent the number of jobs found for Maori unemployed.
Revamp will not cut benefits, Govt promises
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