Dole not cut as long as work sought - Bennett

Paula Bennett said those whose benefits were cut could go through the application process again. File photo / Doug Sherring

Beneficiaries who undergo a review after a year on an unemployment benefit will not lose that assistance if they cannot get a job, Social Development and Employment Minister Paula Bennett says.

The Government is looking at bringing in measures next year that tighten up benefits.

These include: Work-testing for domestic purpose beneficiaries (DPB) whose youngest child has turned six; compulsory budgeting advice sessions for beneficiaries who claim frequent grants; and part-time work obligations for some sickness and invalid beneficiaries.

Those on the unemployment benefit would need to reapply after being on it for a year.

"It's only the unemployment benefit and that's because it is temporary. It's for those who are unable to find work at that particular time," Ms Bennett said.

"We've got a strong interest in not seeing those people fall into long term welfare dependency."

Cabinet was yet to make decisions but the changes were likely to go ahead.

"Our manifesto said that people on the unemployment benefit for more than a year would be required to reapply for their benefit and undergo a comprehensive work assessment.

"What we are looking at is in the weeks leading up to their one year anniversary, we would write to them and tell them they had to come in and see their case manager and go through a comprehensive work assessment and reapply.

"If they don't then their benefit will be cancelled at the 12 month point but they could come back in and go through the process and reapply again."

Ms Bennett said that people who went through the process but did not manage to get a job would be able to continue receiving the benefit.

"Absolutely. There are people at the moment that are trying very hard to find jobs and the jobs aren't available for them, so that's exactly who the system is set up to help. What we will probably be a bit tougher on is those that are not actively seeking work and there will be more obligations on them."

Decisions about whether people on the benefit longer than a year would go through the same process were yet to be made.

"I also have to be cogniscant of the work load of case managers. We are also going to be part-time work testing DPB, well there's around 40,000 women and men on the DPB that have a youngest child older than six years.

"So this is going to be staged over a period of time, I can't have 40,000 DPBs plus 60,000 UB all on the same day having to be case managed."

As of September 6654 people have been on the unemployment benefit more than a year and 816 more than five years.

At the end of November there were 58,541 working aged people receiving the unemployment benefit.

Wellington People's Centre spokeswoman Kay Bereton said the policy was a "kick in the guts" for unemployed people at Christmas time. She accused Ms Bennett of making political mileage out of her previous stint on a benefit but not caring for others who found themselves in the same position.

"All this policy would do is create a desperate underclass competing for scant jobs and doing anything they can to survive."

Ms Bennett said the criticism could not be further from the truth.

The Government would ensure there was training and assistance to help people into work.

"We do want to set people up to succeed at the end of the day," she said.

"We absolutely believe that work is the best way out of poverty for people and we are going to back them and support them into those jobs every time. It's going to be done with fairness, it's going to be done with a level of support that I think beneficiaries haven't seen before. But there are going to be mutual obligations and expectations as well."

- NZPA