Paula Bennett: I was grateful to NZ taxpayers but it's time to stop depending on the state

People who can work should, rather than relying on welfare, says Paula Bennett. Photo / Bevan Conley

Opinion

Opinion:

I like living in a welfare state. I like the thought that we look after each other and, if things haven't gone our way, then there is the state to fall back on. We value parenting in New Zealand so much that if you can't work and find yourself unable to provide for your children, then the Government will pay you each week to do so.

I have been a recipient of this support. As a 17-year-old solo mum I was really grateful to New Zealand taxpayers that they helped me raise my daughter. It wasn't mine by right, it was mine by the good fortune of being born in a country that provided that support.

I also felt a huge sense of responsibility to get off welfare and provide for myself and my daughter. A lifetime on welfare looked like crap. Not enough money to pay the bills, a sense of stigma attached to being a beneficiary and little hope for a better future for either of us.

I did get off welfare and ended up, about 18 years later, running the welfare system as Minister for Social Development 2008-2014. Many tried to rewrite my past or say something often enough and there are those that will take it as fact, but I felt a huge weight of responsibility with the role and passionate and determined to positively change the plight of many who were in a trap of dependence and couldn't see a way out.

People's anger didn't bother me – I get that if you are living on welfare life is hard and me telling them to look for work and that life could be better, didn't always go down well.

If you can work, then you should. There is support from the state but there also has to be self-responsibility to leave a life of dependence. How can our unemployment rate be so low and yet the number of people on welfare swells?

Record numbers of people on the social housing waitlist and many in State Housing not respecting their homes, their neighbours – and probably themselves. The psyche from many is that support from the state by way of welfare payments and housing is theirs by right.

The Government removed sanctions, expectations and encouraged Kainga Ora not to evict bad tenants. People got sanctions only if they weren't complying, that meant actively looking for work if they could and turning up to appointments – not huge expectations but ones the Government don't think are fair and reasonable. The consequences of this is an ever-growing number of people on long-term welfare and more than 25,000 people on the social housing waitlist.

Paula Bennett. Photo / Mark Mitchell

We hear this week of the growing number of state tenants not paying rent and the hell that some people are living through thanks to their state house neighbours. There is no fear of repercussions, as a "victim" they are to be sympathised with to the point where they aren't held responsible for their actions.

The biggest cost of this won't be a monetary one. It will be one of lost opportunity. The sense of self-worth of earning and paying your own bills and purchasing something you want because you worked hard for it will be lost on generations if change doesn't happen.

It's not about punishment, it is about believing in people and their ability to live a life that is worth more than dependence on others. While this Government expects so little from people, so it will be delivered.