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Prime Minister Christopher Luxon says he has spoken to a lot of Work and Income frontline caseworkers who say their biggest frustration was people abusing the beneficiary system.\xa0

\u201cThey don\u2019t feel that they can apply the sanctions when they need to be applied, people who are wilfully and knowingly abusing the system and not taking their situation seriously,\u201d Luxon told Newstalk ZB\u2019s Mike Hosking.\xa0

He was unsure how many people the sanctions would put back into the workforce.\xa0

\u201dLook, there are these rules that exist already today, previous National governments used them, Labour sent out a message to not worry about them too much,\u201d Luxon said.\xa0

\u201dAnd we just sent a message to the CEO of [Ministry of Social Development] to say hey listen, in the spirit of people holding up their end of the bargain, we expect those sanctions to be applied.\xa0

\u201dA big growth in jobseeker numbers in a time of low employment and lots of [worker] shortages, and then we have also had a drop in people being sanctioned.\u201d\xa0

Luxon is looking to make good on a promise he made in his\xa0State of the Nation speech on Sunday\xa0that the \u201cfree ride\u201d was over for beneficiaries who were taking advantage of the welfare system.\xa0

Luxon and Social Development Minister Louise Upston yesterday announced a return to a more strict regime of sanctions for those on the unemployment benefit. A sanction means someone\u2019s benefit gets reduced or cut if they don\u2019t comply with certain expectations such as attending job interviews or completing training.\xa0

\u201cIn 2017, 60,588 sanctions were applied to beneficiaries who did not comply with their obligations to prepare and look for work. That nosedived to 25,329 in 2023,\u201d Upston said.\xa0

\u201cOver that time, people on jobseeker benefits increased by about 70,000 and about 40,000 more people have been receiving this support for a year or more.\u201d\xa0

Luxon told the\xa0AM Show\xa0he doesn\u2019t think they will need more staff to carry out benefit checks.\xa0

\u201dWhat we need to do is have job checks, and one of the things we can do is have one too many talking about job obligations and checking in to make sure people are compliant.\u201d\xa0

He said having a parent in work was good for children.\xa0

\u201dChildren in benefit homes don\u2019t do as well and don\u2019t have the same opportunities as those that have one or both parents working.\xa0

\u201dLet\u2019s be clear, we\u2019re not talking about supported living and we\u2019re not talking about sole parents ... we\u2019re just talking about those deemed capable and able to work.\u201d\xa0

Attacking former Social Development Minister Carmel Sepuloni, Upston said the \u201cprevious minister set the tone for a lighter touch to benefit sanctions by saying they needed to be used \u2018sparingly\u2019 and as a \u2018last resort\u2019, dampening their effectiveness as an incentive to fulfil work obligations\u201d.\xa0

Upston said she had written to the chief executive of the Ministry of Social Development \u201cto make this Government\u2019s view clear that we want to see all obligations and sanctions applied. If jobseekers fail to attend job interviews, to complete their pre-employment tasks, or to take work that is available, then there needs to be consequences\u201d.\xa0

She also announced that from June, the ministry will \u201cbegin work check-ins for jobseekers who have been on benefit for six months, particularly young people\u201d.\xa0

Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston is defending the change in use of benefit sanctions. Photo / Mark Mitchell\xa0

Under the existing sanctions, if a person did not meet work preparation obligations without a \u201cgood and sufficient reason\u201d, their benefit would be reduced by 50 per cent for four weeks. After a second breach, that would be extended to 13 weeks for someone with dependent children, or suspended altogether if they did not have children.\xa0

Sepuloni, Labour\u2019s social development spokeswoman, claimed yesterday\u2019s announcement was unfair and out of touch as she criticised Luxon for speaking down to beneficiaries by assuming jobseekers didn\u2019t want to work.\xa0

\u201cPeople deserve to be supported into meaningful, long-term employment, and sanctions will not do this.\u201d\xa0

Green Party social development spokesman Ricardo Menendez March said the Government was quickly building a legacy of cruelty.\xa0

\u201cInstead of supporting people to provide for themselves and their wh\u0101nau, this Government has actively sought to push people further and further into poverty.\xa0

\u201cNow, today, we have yet another measure to penalise the poorest people. It is a symptom of the politics of cruelty that is driving this coalition\u2019s policies and steering New Zealand backwards.\u201d\xa0

-NZ Herald

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