The Government could be in line to save NZ$1.3 billion a year if it implements the recommendations of a report on reforming New Zealand's welfare system, the authors of the report said today.
The government-appointed Welfare Working Group has released its final report on the system, saying government should aim to reduce the number of people dependent on welfare currently by 100,000 by 2021 from around 360,000 now.
Social Development Minister Paula Bennett said the 100,000 target was "certainly a big call".
"This will take time and we’ll keep talking to New Zealanders about the kind of welfare system they want, that is fair and effective,” Bennett said.
“This Government certainly believes a radical shift is needed, to put the focus on what people can do, not what they can’t do. We have more than 350,000 New Zealanders on benefits and we can do much better by many of them, by backing them into work," she said.
“This will be policy for a recovering economy, we’re planning ahead so that when the jobs become available, people will be ready for them,” Bennett said.
'Change needed'
“The social and economic costs of the current New Zealand welfare system are unacceptably high and the potential benefits of reform are so significant that fundamental change is needed,” Welfare Working Group chairwoman Paula Rebstock said in a media release.
“The Welfare Working Group is confident that if the reform package is implemented effectively, it will have a positive impact on many individuals, their families and the wider community,” Rebstock said.
The report said New Zealand needed to have a more 'work focused' welfare system. Its recommendations included replacing existing benefit categories with a single payment called ‘Jobseeker Support'.
Here is part of the report on the perceived costs and benefits if government were to accept the group's recommendations:
Our analysis indicates that if the reform outlined in this Report were to proceed it could result in:
- a reduction in the numbers of people on a benefit in New Zealand of around 100,000 people (including partners of welfare recipients) by 2021;
- an expected cost of between $215 and $285 million per year in additional services;
- a reduction in the forward liability from around $47 billion to around $34 billion by 2021;
- annual net savings of around $1.3 billion per annum by 2021; and
- higher employment, lower poverty, reduced inequality, better economic outcomes and improved outcomes for children, young people, Māori, disabled people, those who are sick, and other key at-risk groups.
Look at minimum wage?
Meanwhile the report recommended government "undertake an investigation into whether labour marker barriers to employment need to be addressed as part of a strategy to reduce benefit dependency".
The Government's move this month to raise the minimum wage from NZ$12.75 to NZ$13 has drawn condemnation from various people, mainly on the right, arguing the move will raise the labour costs of employers, making it more expensive to take on new workers.
'Don't need to wait for labour market improvment'
The Welfare Working Group's report said there had been concern from some that welfare reform should not proceed because the overall labour market remained challenging.
"It is important to acknowledge that the unemployment rate in 2011 is higher than it was in the mid-2000s and that many people are finding it hard to find jobs. However, the evidence suggests that requiring active and effective job search significantly improves the chances of people finding work (see Chapter 10)," it said in the report.
"It should be noted that before the recent economic downturn, when many firms were reporting serious difficulty in finding workers at all skill levels, 10% of the working age population were on welfare," it said.
"Even in 2008, when there was high and rising unemployment, there were more than 300,000 new hires from job openings in each quarter. It is critical that the welfare system prepares and positions jobseekers for the opportunities when they emerge."
(Updates with Bennett comments, Annette King video, more from report, video of Social Development Minister Paula Bennett)
49 Comments
Its the same old crapola. Listened to the same BS for the past 20 years.
Its absolutly pointless/futile voting for any of them. You're vote is an illusion. Best to disengage as best as possible from the system, its a dead carcus, and start to think about survival on a community level.
At least 6 I'd say. I'm in Oxford, hubby was in Chch where it was apparently felt much more strongly by what he told me (and the stress in his voice, pretty unusual for him). I was upstairs here and felt it quite strongly too although to start with I thought it was just another <=5 aftershock and didn't move, then ran for the stairs.
Can't use my phone right now, being told "can't be connected, try later". No damage at my house but it can't be good in Chch, although here at least it was nowhere near as huge compared to the Sept 4th one.
a well-timed 'report' from the dogma brigade.
No attempt to define 'jobs'.
No attempt to ascertain whether more activity will/won't be detrimental to the real things (depletion, pollution)
No attempt to ascertain that it may well be that labour will be required - if we use fossil fuel at the rate of having 300 slaves apiece, one presumes there will be a bigger demand for labour.
Just the dead 'market' approach, regurgitated.
Exellent.
On the other side, it's important for all folk to feel self-worth, and to feel like they are participating. I have no problem with doing good useful stuff for a minimum-wage benefit.
All incomes are due to lower, of course, but you'd hardly expect that to be contemplated by such a picked crowd.
Sorry in advance for the coarse language, but where do they get these dickheads from.
Do they have special chairs made that they have around their meeting room table, chairs that they lie over with there arses in the air so they can talk out of them to each other.
They are going to have 100,000 more in the blink of an eye when all the cards come tumbling down, and then some after that.
Guess our doctors are going to be even busier writing medical certificates for 'stress'.
Sounds like quite a bit of new damage - http://www.stuff.co.nz/4688231/Large-quake-strikes-Christchurch
Yep, so much for being told to get over the "aftershocks" by the rest of the country. 6.3 apparently http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10707996
Hmmm. Oh dear...Christchurch quake + Welfare shake up = This TVNZ news page
Alex, I didn't mean you at all but the people who wrote the "ah ah ah" at the bottom of that page. It's just that when Stuff has been reporting the larger aftershocks with Chch people commenting, people outside Canterbury also commented and usually not with support messages. I don't think they really understand what it's been like here.
Photo of damage from Twitter via Dimpost
http://dimpost.wordpress.com/2011/02/22/christchurch/?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter
FYI, we're putting together a story here on the earthquake - http://www.interest.co.nz/news/reports-major-damage-including-citys-ico…
feel free to post your comments/experiences.
Damage.... injuries for sure but hopefully no deaths...how long before the fatheads call for heritage building to be saved!....heaps of shite the lot of them. Wellington will cop an 8.5 and it will be CHCH times 1000.
This is another 5 billion damage bill.
I see on the news people have been injured in the CCC building.....people should have a look at the rort and scam behind this building becoming the CCC building.
Had a quick read of the WWG report...it's very good..Paula Rebstock is one heavy hitter...in a perfect world all the recommendations would be implemented and NZ would be a much better place...welfare abuse would reduce massively...but will National only fiddle and tweak???
And I wonder what Labour will find wrong with the report...Goff will give a booming speech in Parliament that National is beneficiary bashing etc etc..Labour's policies have been so destructive to this country.
I agree with MartynC. If you're on a benefit and can't afford to support a kid then don't have it. Stop giving in to these freeloaders and curb the exponential growth of beneficiaries. Speaking of experience of what I have come across so many times it frustrates the he!! out of me to see that my hard earned tax dollars are going towards people that contribute little - in particular the ones that have kids as a source of income and as a means to avoid work-whereas they are perfectly capable of contributing more, particularly those 'career beneficiaries'. It's a good place to start reducing spending!
This report has to be top of the table stuff for the govt post the CHCH disaster. Maybe Tweak and Fiddle will end their silly spin and BS games...maybe they will wake up and end the state waste....maybe!
As for the other lot...they got us into this awful mess and now they expect votes for promises to make the hole deeper still.....what did we do to end up with such a pack of parasitic slobs for an opposition in Parliament?
The word is that the ratings liar agencies will come down hard on Key's govt. That the quake will be seen by them as a watershed event. Perhaps that is what we need. A bloody good boot up the jacksee.
Wolly. I agree. Forget the left/right bullshit. If we gave our kids real skills (not paperwork ones) they'd be equipped. They'd feel better about themselves, and they'd feel like they could be part of society.
And the skills are in the heads of the retirees.
It ain't rocket-science - you put the two together. 3 months is all it would take.
The spanner in the works is the screams from those who have the skills, and are precious about keeping them to themselves. And the silly way we always turn it into a monetary thing.
Imagine if all the unemployed youngsters in Chch were capable of putting a roof on a house and fixing the plumbing.
The unemployment rate is what? 6.4% or there abouts?
Under 25 over 20% AND that doesnt include those still living at home !
We have to import labour to milk our cows and pick our fruit at min wage that our youth would much rather sit at home than get their hands dirty or have to turn up to work each day on time and actually do some thing.
Would predfer to get about $140 for nothing than have to work at min wage and get about $480 nett....and the tax on that is about the same as the beifit.
“The social and economic costs of the current New Zealand welfare system are unacceptably high and the potential benefits of reform are so significant that fundamental change is needed,”
Note the word "Social"
My toung son is real anyoid..these people make it hard for him to even get a job if he should need to, cause employers will not enploy the under 25 s...Also anyoid that the history books will show his generantion statically as a pack of lazy sponges.
He suggested a farmer needs a picker or milker what ever, WINs sends a couple young people down, the 1st week they get the benifit plus wages..after that wages.
If they dont turn up for work as the contracted to do...sent home, forfeit wages owed and dont get dole or benifiets for 2 months.
That takes care of the "social" re programing issue.
Has this or any Government got the balls to do it?....even knowing a huge part of the population will support AND they tend to be the ones who vote......
Nope.
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