A social enterprise director is calling on the Government to reinstate financial support for those businesses who suffer under the red setting.

Nick Carroll runs a social enterprise called Life101, which delivers life and financial skills education to schools, prisons, community groups, those on probation and youth with complex needs. His accompanying charity Momentum is developing a mentor programme for people leaving prison and entering the community.

“Our programmes address many of the barriers that people in prison face, including underemployment, financial uncertainty or mismanagement, negative self-talk, and lack of trust or engagement with institutions (like banks or the IRD) by building participants’ confidence, competence, and ability to make their own choices through a life skills education.”

“These programmes make a significant difference in providing people direction, motivation, and self-confidence, alongside life skills to make positive and transformational change.” Nick says.

“We run the majority of our programmes in prisons and probation centres across Aotearoa, and prisons and probation centres are closed to programme providers until the orange setting. We have not run programmes since August, and have had to cancel all our upcoming programmes, with no indication of when our work can resume.”

Not only are many of the community groups and people in prison and on probation not able to access the programme; Nick and his staff have essentially lost their livelihoods during red setting.

“We – like many other impacted businesses and industries – are in desperate need of financial support. In effect, what my team and I are experiencing now is materially the same as when we were in lockdown. It is a scary time, intensified by the looming Omicron outbreak and what is likely to be the most disruptive period in New Zealand since the pandemic began.”

While he acknowledges, and is grateful for, the proactive and protective measures this Government has implemented over the past two years, he feels businesses like his have this time been left in the lurch.

“We have spoken with representatives from both the IRD and MSD. They have advised us that there is no financial support available to businesses who are unable to operate in the red setting. This has been a hard pill to swallow, given that the Government recognised the challenges people were facing under Alert Levels 3 and 4 and provided support via the wage subsidy and resurgence payments.”

Nick has also approached Grant Robertson directly but has not received a reply.

“I know there are many businesses out there like mine, who simply cannot operate in red setting – despite staff getting vaccinated, despite adhering to strict sanitisation protocols. And sadly, there is a very real risk of businesses like mine not surviving this.

“So I am calling on the Government to consider businesses and people like us – we should not be punished for the industry that our business or social enterprise operates in. We want to work – and ensure our programmes continue to make such a significant contribution to communities – we just can’t.”

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