Fruit picker shortage: Govt to allow beneficiaries who go into seasonal work to keep more of benefit

There is a seasonal worker shortage in Hawke's Bay with the three-month long apple harvest well under way. Photo / File

The Government will increase the amount of money people can earn on seasonal work before it affects their benefit, in the hope it will help solve Hawke's Bay's fruit-picking shortage.

Currently, a person on Jobseeker Support can earn up to $90 a week before their benefit starts to reduce with sole parents and people on Supported Living Payment being able to earn up to $115 a week.

"The changes mean people can earn up to $160 a week before their benefit starts to be affected," Minister for Social Development and Employment Carmel Sepuloni said.

She said the Government was committed to increasing the amount of money people can earn before it affects their benefit, but allowing people to work fulltime in seasonal employment and receive a full and unabated benefit is not something she was looking into.

The increase in abatement thresholds will take effect from April 1, about a month before the apple harvest season finishes.

Before the announcement, long-time community development worker Gwyn John wrote a letter to Sepuloni, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Hawke's Bay Today calling for a complete amnesty for any beneficiaries who are willing and able to take on short-term seasonal work in their local community.

The Government removed the two-week stand-down period between benefit applications being approved and payments commencing as part of its response to Covid-19 from March 2020 until July 2021.

In addition to this, a client does not have a stand-down period if they have been in temporary employment for less than 26 weeks.

However, those who leave a job voluntarily or are fired for misconduct face a 13-week non-entitlement period before benefit payments begin again.

John says there should be no benefit reductions, and no stand-down when the job ends, if the Government really wanted unemployed locals to take up picking.

"I think there are some really simple solutions, and this is one of them that would make a huge difference to people's lives."

She said the abatement threshold increases are a start, but a blanket amnesty would make things a lot simpler for everyone.

"It feels a little bit like a token gesture really, in that it's helpful but it doesn't provide the opportunity to actually make a big dent," John said.

"The amount of fluffing around and admin that's required ... for the sake of a few dollars' worth of abatements, it just seems stingy and unnecessary.

"Just give them the amnesty, and let them earn what they can in the short amount of time that they are able to do it."

John said it wouldn't cost taxpayers anything as those people are receiving the benefit anyway, but it would allow them a valuable chance to get ahead and break out of the poverty cycle:

"Fixing the washing machine so you don't have to traipse down to the laundromat every week to do your washing. Fixing your cars so you don't get fined for not having a registration or a warrant, so you can take your kids to school in the rain.

"If you're living on a benefit you're living hand-to-mouth. If one of those crazy bills comes up you're really in trouble."

Yummy Fruit Company general manager Paul Paynter said the most important thing was getting the crop picked, so any measure that would bring in more workers would be welcome.

He said an unabated benefit was a good idea that would influence more people to take up apple picking, although not in the numbers required to tackle the seasonal-worker shortage.

Yummy Fruit Company general manager Paul Paynter says anything that could entice more people into seasonal work would help. Photo / File

In November the Government launched the New Zealand Seasonal Work Scheme to incentivise seasonal work ahead of the harvest, offering $200 a week for accommodation costs and a $1000 lump sum payment for workers who spent six weeks or longer in a job.

However, only 63 people were already linked to this scheme as at Monday, the East Coast's regional commissioner for the Ministry of Social Development, Annie Aranui, said.

Sepuloni said the ministry was working on a wide range of strategies to address the disruption to the seasonal labour supply.

"The Seasonal Workers Scheme is one of these strategies. It was launched in November 2020, and given the peak seasonal periods for the horticulture and viticulture sectors nationwide are still to come, we expect to see an increase in uptake over the next few weeks."

Sepuloni said the latest statistics show 2129 people either cancelled or suspended their main benefit and moved into seasonal work across all sectors in New Zealand between November 15 and January 31.

Social Development Minister Carmel Sepuloni and the Government are letting beneficiaries keep more of their payments when they work. Photo / File

In Hawke's Bay, between November 15, 2020, and January 31, 2021, 305 clients came off benefits and into seasonal work, Aranui said.

Paynter said he thought the New Zealand Seasonal Work Scheme incentives were pretty significant, and still haven't proven to be enough.

"There's some people coming off the sidelines, we're getting fives and tens, but we really need 50s and 100s, and there's no way you're going to get that out of the local unemployed," he said, adding that Hawke's Bay's housing crisis was a massive barrier to accommodating workers from other regions.

John said it was impractical to ask people to move to where the work is with the incentives in the New Zealand Seasonal Work Scheme alone.

"It's fine when you're a 21-year-old student, but it's not practical for people with families or rentals.

"Anyone who's a parent, there's no way they can jump in and pick apples if it's going to mean a 13-week stand-down [from their benefit payments]."