Mountain Tui: Beneficiary sanctions & targets don’t add up

Written By: - Date published: 1:23 pm, August 13th, 2024 - 9 comments
Categories: benefits, child welfare, Christopher Luxon, Social issues, uncategorized - Tags: , , ,

This is an excerpt from Mountain Tui’s substack post

National’s beneficiary sanctions announcement wasn’t really new news.

Most of it was announced as part of National’s pre-election suite.

In September 2023, Stuff headlined the traffic light system with: Advocates see trouble with National’s ‘traffic light’ plan to cut benefits.

And yes, that included sanctions such as ‘money management’ i.e. the cashless payment card that Upton said would control what beneficiaries can buy – and where.

Upton said the sanction measures would help child poverty targets. Questionable – especially as National was told their beneficiary indexation changes would push 13,000 more children in poverty. And in response, the government quietly shrunk child poverty targets last month.

Plus, she noted ~1500 people had their benefits cancelled last quarter, but has no idea what happened to them.

And when asked if there was any global evidence of sanctions’ effectiveness, Minister Upton misrepresented an MSD study, saying it proved that sanctions help with motivation and getting people back to work.

Except that’s not what the study said at all.

In a disturbing pattern of Ministerial misrepresentation, Upton had actually been corrected last year on a similar statement.

In September 2023, Charles Waldegrave, one of the authors, said – “What she’s referring to was definitely a minority of the views that were put forward. By far the majority of research on sanctions has shown that it’s counterproductive when you use it with low-income families.”

The MSD study she quoted also noted:

  • the payment card is not working in its current form and young people can get around
  • the payment card restrictions (eg letting family members use the card to buy groceries in exchange for cash)
  • sanctions and incentives do not to influence young people’s behaviours in the long-term
  • some providers worried the management of payments through redirections created a sense of dependence on them etc.

It turns out the payment idea is based on David Seymour’s copy and paste of an Australian right wing policy. Yet studies have consistently shown so called welfare payment cards contribute to feelings of shame of stigma, shame and frustration, and do more harm than good. And they do not reduce drug and alcohol abuse.

There were a series of other revelations from the Luxon / Upton press conference:

  • About 5% of job seeker beneficiaries don’t comply with the MSD’s rapidly increasing list of obligations
  • Sole parents with job related obligations and those on supported living payments would fall into the net
  • Jobseekers found out yesterday by email about the new regime, and those in orange or red would have about 5 days to sort it all out.

Now this push is all being driven by Luxon’s 9 KPIs.

That included a target to reduce job seeker beneficiaries by 50,000 by 2030. That target doesn’t appear to add up, especially as this government is actively axing thousands of jobs through funding cuts across public and private sector, and it neither accounts for population growth, a weakening labour market, or the large proportion of jobseekers on Health or Disability and who already work part time.

This year, ANZ forecast 40,000 more jobs would go by year’s end although estimates by different economists range from 25,000 upwards.

Yes, beneficiaries who are abusing the system can be managed, but to employ expensive, ineffective, counter-productive measures on a whole jobseeker population – at a time when the job market is in decline thanks to government austerity – and choose to impart such a lack of dignity and hardship on people who are already struggling – seems counter-intuitive, and possibly cruel.

If they wanted to improve job seekers statistics, they could fix the economy and invest in productivity. Something that we haven’t seen as the government actively axes investments in science, technology and climate, while doubling down on agriculture.

What is far more likely is that the government is trying to remove people from the beneficiaries list through making it more and more burdensome for them.

JOBSEEKER TREND GRAPH

Light blue = Health or Disability / dark blue = work ready job seekers, some of whom are already working part time

Where this all falls will likely result in increased family tensions, increased crime, and onto the backs of social service providers and food banks – even as the government slashes funding for them, and instructs police not to attend most family harm and mental health incidents.

Cartoon Credit: Chris Slane

9 comments on “Mountain Tui: Beneficiary sanctions & targets don’t add up ”

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  1. thinker 1
    13 August 2024 at 2:11 pm

    One thing it has the potential to do is to highlight how unaffordable some people's lives are. At the moment, a lot of people pay the rent and have less than enough for food and clothing. What we'll see is people allocated what the government believes is appropriate for food, clothes etc (through the payment card) and it will show them as not being able to pay the rent.

    On the other side of the coin, though, isn't the use of a payment card taking away the commercial rights to a level playing field on the part of the shopkeepers who aren't the government's chosen supplier? How fair is that? How do you get to be the chosen supplier, or even on the radar?

  2. Tiger Mountain 2
    13 August 2024 at 2:19 pm

    This dirty filthy CoC Govt. knows exactly what it is doing with the punitive Bennie Bash they have set in place to impress their vindictive supporters. Sanctions for not attending a meeting or responding to a phone message?–low income people run out of petrol, bus money and data allowance–MSD/WINZ staff well know this and just do not care.

    The sooner MSD/WINZ are retired for good and a Basic Income instituted for all citizens–abated as you earn more–the better.

    • Michael who failed Civics 2.1
      13 August 2024 at 3:36 pm

      "The sooner MSD/WIN are retired for good and a Basic Income instituted for all citizens -abated as you earn more – the better."

      Nothing of the sort will ever happen in Aotearoa under neoliberal governments. That most definitely includes Labour; it had six years to transform the welfare system and trumpeted incessantly that it was doing so. But all it did were a few cynical cosmetic changes.

      • Tiger Mountain 2.1.1
        13 August 2024 at 4:37 pm

        Well aware of the unimplemented WEAG Report and all the rest. The point is that such demands as Basic Income must continue to be raised.

      • Mountain Tui 2.1.2
        13 August 2024 at 5:28 pm

        I think the source of the issue is the money behind attack groups (Hobsons Pledge, Taxpayers Union etc) and low quality media i.e. that which baits, and doesn't inform.

        As long as they are in existence, they will just use any attempt to advance society as an opportunity to divide and attack voters i.e. citizens / residents.

        If you scroll down on the link below, you can see some of the antics they use – and to me at least – there is no peace possible under effective attack dogs like that, whoever is in power.

        https://mountaintui.substack.com/p/why-the-left-has-been-stupid-the

        Here's one excerpt:

        Just as Jordan Williams took credit for putting pressure on Jacinda Adern and getting rid of Capital Gains Tax in NZ, Atlas are here to nudge National Party, Luxon, and the country forward in its vision.

  3. roblogic 3
    13 August 2024 at 3:52 pm

    Seen on X/twitter:

    Must be dire [ @meco78526 ]

  4. Rolling-on-Gravel 4
    13 August 2024 at 5:43 pm

    Now that this is the reality:

    It is incumbent on us all to prevent the deaths that are happening to disabled people in Britain and any such country that is abusing its populace on the benefits here in Aotearoa.

    This is only the beginning:

    https://www.workandincome.govt.nz/map/income-support/main-benefits/supported-living-payment/work-ability-assessment-01.html

    There will be great tribulations ahead for us disabled people and other people on the benefits.

    I pray that we can survive this and get beyond this awful government and vote it out after its one and hopefully only term.