Source: Radio New Zealand
Ricardo Menendez March has criticised the system as another layer of bureaucracy. RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
The Green Party is criticising the $8 million cost to set up the government’s traffic-light system for beneficiaries, which introduced new non-financial sanctions, calling it “smoke and mirrors”.
The Greens have drawn attention to the number, after Ministry of Social Development (MSD) bosses revealed, during Scrutiny Week, that just 12 people had received non-financial sanctions in the six months they’ve been available.
Nearly 13,000 sanctions were issued in total in the September quarter this year.
Green social development spokesperson Ricardo Menendez March said Minister Louise Upston had been “wasting everyone’s time” and money to create more layers of bureaucracy and “effectively unworkable” new sanctions.
Non-financial sanction options are mandatory community work or money management payment cards.
“These were supposed to be a less punitive way of addressing people’s engagement with Work and Income,” Menendez March said. “Clearly, the minister has instead chosen to continue a punitive approach.”
He said the new system merely added another interface for people to interact with, rather than meaningfully assisting people into employment.
“The only thing the traffic light has told us is that most beneficiaries are complying with their obligations… it doesn’t actually solve any problems.”
In response, Upston told RNZ the traffic-light system was “working well”, as it helped people understand their obligations.
In a statement, MSD spokesperson Graham Allpress said the new regime was intended to help beneficiaries avoid sanctions by meeting their obligations, of which and more than 98 percent currently were.
“We invested $8.11 million into a variety of changes, which make it quicker, simpler and easier for our clients to check whether they’re doing what they agreed to do.
“It’s working as intended. People are engaging with us more often.”
Allpress said the small number of non-financial sanctions was because they could be applied only in specific circumstances.
For example, to be eligible, the individual would need to be in case management or have dependent children, fail an obligation just once, and then meet with a case manager within five days of that failure.
Appearing at a select committee on Wednesday, during parliament’s scrutiny week, MSD chief executive Debbie Power denied those circumstances were too narrow, given just 12 people had received non-financial sanctions, saying, “We’re just starting”.
Power said she had heard from the front-line that staff and clients appreciated the transparency of the system’s colour arrangements to better understand what was expected of them.
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
