Comment on Government Welfare Working Group Report 9 August 2010

Sue Bradford

This morning the Government’s Welfare Working Group issued its first Summary Paper ‘Long term benefit dependency: the issues’

The whole thrust of the report, and of associated comments from WWG Chair Paula Rebstock, has been to promote the idea that our welfare setup is unsustainable, and that ‘the current benefit system is outdated.’

Ms Rebstock says that too many people have been on benefits for too long and that the most worrying increase in benefits is for sickness and invalids’ beneficiaries. Much play is also made of a recent Australian report which stresses the health benefits of paid employment.

The WWG report is mainly a compilation of statistics, It’s not the statistics themselves that are the problem, but how they are being used to further a particular agenda, without looking at other alternatives and solutions.

The key concerns I have with today’s report, and with Ms Rebstock’s associated comments are that:

• There is no recognition given to the fact that a rise in unemployment to 6.8% is the main cause for the recent rise in benefit numbers. We now have 159,000 people officially unemployed and 255,700 people officially jobless in this country, as of last week’s Household Labour Force Survey.
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• It has always been hard for sole parents, and for people with sickness, injury and long term impairment to get paid work. At a time of high unemployment, this becomes even more difficult. If Work & Income increases harassment - and cuts benefits - this is likely to worsen existing medical and family problems. Another generation of children will grow up in even deeper poverty.
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• There is no discussion of what type of ‘work’ is so good for people. Will it be wellpaid, steady work at hours and in conditions with which sole parents, the sick, the injured and the impaired can cope? Or will it be part time, casual, low paid, difficult and even dangerous to their health and welfare?
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• Moving to an insurance or ACC-type model will shift the cost of welfare to employers and workers, and is likely to result in far fewer people receiving benefits, and at lower rates, if they can even access welfare payments in the first place.
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• The Welfare Working Group – in following the Government’s directions - is simply manufacturing a crisis out of thin air, in order to soften us up for the biggest reform of our social security system in generations.
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Yes, the benefit system is outdated and in need of urgent reform.

Yes, we do need Government action to help create jobs, training and education for unemployed people and beneficiaries.

But let’s look at solutions that are far more innovative, compassionate and fair than those the Government’s Welfare Working Group is offering,

ENDS

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