Labour turns unemployed into victims

Labour's plan to turn Work and Income case managers into social workers will turn beneficiaries into victims, ACT Deputy Leader and Welfare Spokesman Dr Muriel Newman said today.

Dr Newman was responding to the launch yesterday of a new service, which will see Work and Income's 4000 frontline case workers becoming counsellors to their clients.

About 1000 Auckland case workers have been through domestic violence training and remaining Work and Income employees will be trained in the next year.

"While everyone condemns domestic violence, the question is whether it is appropriate that case managers, who have a prime responsibility of helping the unemployed to find jobs, should now be required to become social workers.

"Labour's plan, which will undoubtedly result in unemployed beneficiaries moving off the dole into counselling is a great way of disguising the scandal that 80,000 able bodied New Zealanders are dependent on the dole at a time when the country is crying out for workers.

"The fact that Labour is not requiring those on the dole to take jobs is an abuse of the welfare system and the hardworking taxpayers who fund it," Dr Newman said.

ENDS

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