Critics Slam 'Punitive' New Benefit Sanctions

Monday, 3 February 2025, 9:38 pm
Article: RNZ

Susan Edmunds, Money Correspondent

Critics say the government's new non-financial sanctions for beneficiaries are "punitive" and unlikely to make a real difference.

Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston said on Monday that two non-financial sanctions were being added to the traffic light system.

This is designed to show beneficiaries whether they are meeting their obligations.

Those who do not can end up losing part or all of their benefits.

The two new sanctions focus on job-hunting.

In one case, jobseekers will be required to perform a minimum of three job-search activities a week for four weeks and report to the Ministry of Social Development.

In the other, jobseekers will be required to attend and participate in employment-related training courses for at least five hours a week for four weeks.

People would have to meet these obligations before they returned to the "green" level.

"These new sanctions will ensure there is accountability in the welfare system for those who aren't taking reasonable steps to seek employment, while also recognising that reducing benefits isn't the answer for everyone," Upston said.

"These sanctions are in addition to the new Money Management and Community Work Experience sanctions that will come into force later in the year.

"We're gearing up the welfare system to make the most of the forecast improvement in economic growth in the coming years by providing MSD with the tools and focus to reduce welfare dependency and support more people into work."

She said it was important that beneficiaries who could work took steps to do so and there were consequences for those who did not.

The non-financial sanctions will provide an alternative to financial penalties for those who fail to meet their obligations for the first time.

The change will be introduced as part of the Social Security Amendment Bill, currently before Parliament,.

Ricardo Menendez-March, Green Party MP, said it was another punitive measure that would push beneficiaries deeper into hardship.

"They should be supported to find work in a way that matches their skills and aspirations with adequate work. Rather than pushing people into any job no matter how unsuitable for the person."

He said it was concerning that these sanctions were being added to the bill at this stage.

"This means oral an written submitters didn't have that information at the time of making submissions. We had a very high level of written submissions on the bill which meant we actually weren't able to accommodate all the results for oral submissions as a result of it.

"It feels like bad democratic process to slap these extra sanctions halfway through when they knew they wanted to do it from the beginning. They could have delayed the bill until all of its components were clear and ready."

Craig Renney, policy director at the Council of Trade Unions, said there needed to be more evidence that these sort of sanctions had an effect.

"Is there evidence that these have worked elsewhere?

"If they were doing this when unemployment was falling and there were lots of jobs you can sort of go 'ok I can see why, how do we encourage people into jobs?' But when unemployment is rising and there are fewer and fewer roles, it looks a lot like just demonising people are doing their best."

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