New welfare proposals 'defining moment'

Relevant offers

Politics

Treaty obligations to stay in SOE sales law McCully email thief could be Kiwi PSA disappointed Key won't discuss cuts Delays in privatising ACC work account No background checks on Education ministry staff Labour fears for Kiwis in ministry shake-up The one-seat threshold Today In Politics: Thursday, February 23 Police complaint over election programme McCully's emails revealed

Radical new welfare proposals are set to become a defining moment in New Zealand's history, the Salvation Army says.

A welfare working group will report to the Government tomorrow on options to reshape the welfare system, including tough new rules on getting parents on the domestic purposes benefit back to work.

Salvation Army major Campbell Roberts said he was concerned about how far the reforms would go. "It seems to be a defining moment."

The working group was asked by the Government to look at options to get more people off benefits and into work, get people on sickness and invalids benefits back into work and look at insurance models for options to reform the benefit system, including funding.

In a discussion paper last year it considered controversial proposals including a threshold after which an unemployed person would be placed into either paid or unpaid work.

Roberts said the organisation believed that, while the benefit system was complex and clearly needed reform, the report would focus on welfare reform in isolation from wider social issues including housing and education.

"We think that the pathway beyond welfare dependency is not more tightly controlled benefits, but better resourced schools, training opportunities and opening up workplaces to the marginalised ... the rhetoric about moving people back into work is great, but you look at the average solo mum with three or four children.

"She might want to get to work but there's all sorts of hurdles; there's not adequate early childhood education, she doesn't happen to live next to a workplace ... and then the ability of the workplace, even if it wanted to, to be able to fit the constraints of looking after children who get sick often and things go wrong. And what happens when they come home from school and holidays?"

The report comes as Prime Minister John Key signalled a shift in tone on welfare issues, after suggesting that the use of foodbanks was a "lifestyle choice" for some beneficiaries and the result of "poor choices".

Roberts said he could not understand why Key made the remark. "I think that was a very foolish statement; the Government [put] millions of dollars into an emergency relief programme, so they've recognised themselves that the economic crisis is creating a need for people."

Key today stood by his comments, but accepted there were unexpected circumstances people had to cope with.

"I stand by that, which is, yep, people make some choices - that's one factor, that's not the only factor, there are lots of reasons why people might use a foodbank and find themselves on welfare," he told NewstalkZB.

"It is one factor and that is supported in a report from the Families Commissioner and other research that I have seen."

Very few of the 360,000 on welfare used foodbanks, he said.

"By definition those people are budgeting and getting by."

- By TRACY WATKINS/Stuff, with NZPA