[comment caption=Is the current welfare system too soft on long-term benificiaries?]National Party leader John Key has returned to his party's roots by targeting the unemployed in a benefits policy he says will have an unrelenting focus on getting beneficiaries back to work.
National would not introduce a "work for dole" or "community wage" scheme but would require long-term unemployed to get paid work and get off the benefit.
"Within 12 months of taking office, National will require everyone who has been on the dole for more than a year to re-apply for their benefit and undergo a comprehensive work assessment."
All long-term unemployment beneficiaries would be required to do what it took to secure employment, he said.
That might include practical training, attending a basic skills course, or attending drug and alcohol rehabilitation.
After that, they would be required to actively look for a job, go to any job interview they were referred to and accept any suitable offer of employment.
If they did not comply with those obligations, their benefits would reduced in the first instance, then suspended, then cancelled, Mr Key said.
However, forcing long-term unemployed to find jobs might be harder than Mr Key envisages.
Economists last week forecast New Zealand's unemployment to rise to 5% by this time next year, and predicted 20,000 jobs would be lost in the year ended June 30, 2009.
Otago-Southland Employers Association chief executive Duncan Simpson said employing long-term unemployed created issues for employers.
They were high-risk employees and the way legislation was currently written, if things went wrong employers were stuck with some form of compensation payout to get rid of unsatisfactory staff.
Asked what he meant by "high risk", Mr Simpson said usually the long-term unemployed had health problems or a criminal record.
"They fall out of the habit of getting up in the morning and going to work. And a lot haven't worked in modern workplaces with the emphasis on computers. An awful lot of training is required to get people to anywhere near effective."
If National introduced the policy, then it needed to be in conjunction with the 90-day trial period, although some of the long-term unemployed could take longer than 90 days to assess for work suitability, he said.
Mr Key said National also wanted appropriate incentives in the benefit system so those on benefits wanted to work.
The benefit abatement regime would be made more generous.
Beneficiaries and their partners could currently earn up to $80 a week before their benefit was affected.
Above that level of earnings, benefits were reduced at the rate of 70c for every $1 earned - unless they were on the domestic purposes or invalid benefits, which were initially reduced at 30c in the dollar.
National intended raising the rate to $100 a week before benefits were abated, he said.
Mr Simpson said that still only equated to eight hours' work at the minimum wage - hardly the right signal to send about work.
But he supported the policy in principle.
Social Development Minister Ruth Dyson said National's policy was a return to the 1990s.
"The 1990s is back and today the National Party showed how bereft they really are of new ideas."
The policy would introduce a "work or no benefit" approach, increase bureaucracy and stop progress to a core benefit.
Punishing beneficiaries would mean their children would suffer the most.
The Government's current policy gave people support and incentives to work, Ms Dyson said.
