About
300,000 welfare beneficiaries who are judged to be capable of
work will face a day of reckoning tomorrow when the
Government receives a report that recommends they be forced
to look for jobs.
A welfare working group chaired by economist Paula Rebstock
is poised to recommend a package of radical changes which Ms
Rebstock says will be "more extensive than what most have
ever done in a one-off reform".
The report is due to be released at noon.
Former Green MP Sue Bradford, who now leads a new group
called Auckland Action Against Poverty, said the report was
shaping up to make the 1991 benefit cuts look like "chicken
feed".
The report's major thrust is expected to extend the
obligation to look for paid work to the vast majority of
beneficiaries between 18 and 64.
Ms Rebstock said yesterday only a third of the 352,700
working-age beneficiaries were now required to look for work
- all 67,000 on unemployment benefits, 43,000 sole parents
with no children under age 6 and, from this May, 9000
sickness beneficiaries assessed as being able to work at
least 15 hours a week.
"We would see that percentage increasing very significantly,"
she said.
Her interim report last November said only 20,000 people on
invalid benefits had such severe disabilities or illnesses
that they could never be expected to work.
It also suggested sole parents should have to look for
part-time work when their youngest children turn either 1, in
line with the maximum parental leave, or 3, when "free" early
childhood education begins.
If it opts in the end for age 2, that would exempt only
22,500 sole parent beneficiaries with youngest children under
2.
That would increase the proportion of beneficiaries required
to look for work from 37% to 88%, or about 310,000 people.
Labour's social development spokeswoman, Annette King, said
she hoped the group recommended a "fair level of carrot,
rather than lots of stick".
"You have to get people the tools to get people off the
benefit. For example, if you are a mother with young
children, you've got to be able to find suitable work and it
has to be work that can ensure that you can look after your
children," she said.
It is not known whether the final report will pick up other
tough options from the interim report, such as reducing the
level of benefits after a year or requiring beneficiaries to
work for their money after two years.
But Ms Rebstock said any hard-line proposals for
beneficiaries would be matched by proposals for families,
employers, health services and the Government to give people
more help to get off welfare.
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