National says get tough on benefits

By REBECCA WALSH health reporter



The National Party wants tougher controls on people applying for sickness benefits.

As the number of people on the sickness benefit continues to grow, National's welfare spokeswoman Katherine Rich has urged a return to National's designated doctor programme, under which only some doctors would be able to determine a person's eligibility for the benefit.

"Once it was opened up, it made it a lot harder for GPs to say no, but easier for people to get a GP to sign the appropriate documentation," she said.

"Some GPs are put in the difficult position of being state gatekeepers," she said.

Yesterday the Herald revealed increasing numbers of unemployed people were trying to get sickness benefits to avoid work testing.

Doctors and medical groups said they were under growing pressure to say able-bodied beneficiaries were unfit for work so they could get the sickness benefit.

They said the move was encouraged by Work and Income staff who were tired of trying to find jobs for beneficiaries who didn't want to work.

Work and Income has denied the claim.

Opposition parties say they are not surprised by the doctors' claims and Act wants an urgent inquiry into the growth of sickness beneficiary numbers.

Prime Minister Helen Clark said it would be "completely out of order, uncalled for and wrong" if Work and Income was shifting people from one benefit to another to keep unemployment numbers down.

"Some people are just on the wrong benefit and so there will be transfers, but anyone who thinks that the sickness benefit is a permanent benefit is plain wrong," she said.

Social Development and Employment Minister Steve Maharey has rejected any suggestion that people were being moved on to sickness benefits because of difficulties finding work for them.

He said that since 1999, less than 6 per cent of people coming off the unemployment benefit had transferred to a sickness benefit.

Mr Maharey said a designated doctor scheme did exist for invalid benefits, but it was no longer used for sickness benefits because of "increased costs that did not advance anyone's cause".

He said there was no evidence GPs were not providing sound diagnosis.

In the year to April, 113,337 people were on a sickness or invalid benefit, a seven per cent increase on the previous 12 months.

A report by the Ministry of Social Development report, investigating growth in sickness and invalid benefits over the past 10 years, found almost half the growth was a result of demographic changes and the rise in the age of eligibility for superannuation.

The percentage of sickness beneficiaries aged 60-plus grew from 4 per cent in 1993 to 7 per cent in 2002.

The report, given under the Official Information Act to Ms Rich, suggested increasing numbers of beneficiaries with depression and stress-related illnesses could be contributing to the growth.

Pharmac figures show 103,606 people aged 19 and over were prescribed anti-depressants last year, a 455 per cent increase since 1996.

Some of the growth in sickness benefits could be due to the effects on people's health of long term unemployment, the report said.

Ms Rich did not believe the country faced a worsening health status.

Some problems, which people would have "boxed on" with years ago, were being re-defined as accepted reasons for not working. Mild depression could be "exacerbated by sitting at home and staring at a wall".