3. SUE BRADFORD (Green) Link to this
to the Minister for Social Development and Employment
Will he consider introducing work testing for sole parents and basing eligibility for sickness and invalids benefits on a system more akin to that used by ACC, as proposed by the Ministry of Social Development in its briefing to the incoming Minister?
Hon DAVID BENSON-POPE (Minister for Social Development and Employment) Link to this
Let me be clear that the Government has made no decisions about such proposals. We know that being in work, though, offers the best opportunity for people to achieve higher living standards for themselves and their families. The question the briefing papers properly raise is how best we can offer people such an opportunity.
Does the Minister agree with Steve Maharey’s 2002 comment: “the vast majority of people currently receiving the widows benefit or domestic purposes benefit are highly motivated to move into work and do not need to be shoehorned into any job going, and that the new rules recognise that raising healthy, successful children is important and assist beneficiaries to move into paid work, but recognise that being a good parent must come first”; if so, has the Minister reiterated that Government policy to the Ministry of Social Development—or is it just window dressing while a work-testing model is being developed?
Hon DAVID BENSON-POPE Link to this
I have the greatest respect for the views of my colleague, and I am delighted to assure the questioner that I would not support any regime that I regarded as punitive.
Georgina BeyerHon DAVID BENSON-POPE Link to this
Under the previous National Government, domestic purposes benefit numbers grew nearly 20 percent, to an all-time high in 1998 of 113,000. Domestic purposes benefit numbers have fallen under this Government, due to the hard work of my predecessor. The number of domestic purposes benefit clients has fallen by 4 percent, and if one considers only those sole parents in receipt of the domestic purposes benefit, it has fallen by 6 percent.
Anne TolleyDoes the Minister, by ignoring advice to work test from his own ministry, think that many widows and sole parents are incapable, by virtue of being sole parents, of returning to the workforce?
Hon DAVID BENSON-POPE Link to this
No, I thought it was quite clear from my earlier statement that no advice will be ignored.
Is the Minister aware that stringent work testing of beneficiaries has been subject to intense criticism for forcing claimants into minimum-wage or low-paid jobs, and when he told the House just now that he would not be taking a punitive approach, did he consider that moving from an entitlement model to the accident compensation type of work test would actually lead to very punitive outcomes for many people?
Hon DAVID BENSON-POPE Link to this
I envisage a system that acknowledges and focuses on what clients can do rather than what they cannot, and it will be in that direction that I will be moving.
Does the Minister agree with the Prime Minister’s Speech from the Throne that New Zealand’s economic security will come from our firms being part of a high-skill, high-productivity, and high-wage economy; if so, does he have any concerns that forcing sickness and invalids beneficiaries and sole parents into low-wage, low-skill work may actually be undermining the Prime Minister’s vision?
Does he have any concerns that the department appears to be shifting from a view that people with illnesses and disabilities who are entitled to income support should be moving to the ACC model, which is focused on limiting the financial exposure of ACC, or is he simply taking his orders from Treasury in letting the poor and sick and the very young carry the burden of so-called fiscal responsibility, and can he assure us that he will not be taking up those suggestions from the Ministry of Social Development?
Hon DAVID BENSON-POPE Link to this
I am pleased to inform the member that, as part of the work being undertaken on the core benefit, consideration will be given to providing a disability payment regardless of a person’s employment status. The rationale is that many sick and disabled people have costs that remain constant, whether or not they are working. The suggestion is that we create a payment that recognises the core costs associated with ill health and disability, and that the payment follow the disabled person whether or not he or she is in work. I assure the member that any policies that are developed will be in line with the Disability Strategy of this Government.