Anti-poverty groups say amendments to Social Security Act will remove job seekers’ human rights

9 January 2025 – Anti-poverty groups say that changes proposed in the Social Security Act Amendment Bill currently before Parliament would result in more jobseekers and their dependents unable to buy food, pay rent and other basic bills – and at a time when unemployment is at a four year high. [1]

Child Poverty Action Group’s Executive Officer, Sarita Divis, says “This Bill will put at risk the fundamental human rights and wellbeing of people, including many of our most vulnerable. We are particularly concerned about the so-called non-financial sanctions in this Bill, which in reality would have financial consequences and are targeted towards people with children.”

Sanctions proposed in the Bill include a ‘Money Management’ system where 50% of a person’s benefit is placed onto an MSD payment card that can only be used to buy certain items at approved stores. Divis says, “Many people on income support are paying more than 50% of their income in rent. [2] This sanction risks people not being able to make their rent payments and becoming homeless.”

“We are also concerned about the proposed ‘Community Work Experience’ scheme”, says Divis. “Official Information Act requests have revealed that people placed into this scheme – and the Money Management scheme – will not be allowed to access emergency housing, or special needs grants. Yet most benefits don’t cover living costs, and many people and their children rely on those supports for keeping food on the table and a roof over their heads.”

Citizens Advice Bureau NZ National Policy Advisor, Louise May, says that also of concern are the measures in the Bill to make people reapply for their benefit more frequently, and the extension of the period in which an obligation failure can be held against a person. The Bill proposes making people reapply for their benefit every 6 months instead of every twelve months, and that an obligation failure will be held against a person for two years instead of one year.

“These changes will increase the risk of people having their benefits cut or cancelled”, says May. “In the CAB we witness the difficulties job seekers often experience in trying to make their applications and navigate the system. We regularly help people who have had their benefits cut or cancelled through error or mishandling of their case or because they happened to miss a phone call or appointment. Increasing the interactions people must have with Work & Income and tying sanctions to those interactions exposes people to greater risk of harm.”

NZ Disability Advisory Trust’s Senior Disability Service Navigator, Nick Stoneman, says that the Bill undermines what the Social Security Act was established to do. “The purpose of our social security system is for protecting people’s basic human rights – ensuring people can feed and house themselves, keep warm in the wintertime, live a dignified life free from deprivation”, says Stoneman. “Threatening people’s access to the support they need for meeting their basic costs, or actively removing that support, are not things that any Government should do.”

“No matter how people come to need the support of our welfare system, whether it’s because of illness or disability, relationship breakdown, bereavement, being made unemployed – everyone should be guaranteed enough income to live with dignity”, says Stoneman.

May says that the Government must move away from using sanctions against people who need income support. “From the work CAB does with thousands of job seekers every year, we know that the best way to help people improve their lives is through genuine care and support – punishment is counterproductive. Rather than the Government taking a punitive approach, we would like it to focus on working better with people, in positive ways that are actually helpful to them.”

The groups are calling for the Bill to be dropped and for the Government to take the following steps [3] to unlock people and whānau from the constraints of poverty:

1. Increase core benefit levels to the standard of liveable incomes

2. Raise the minimum wage to the living wage

3. Increase the Disability Allowance

4. Overhaul relationship rules

5. Remove sanctions

6. Wipe debt owed to the Ministry of Social Development

7. Improve supplementary assistance and urgent grants

The deadline for written submissions on the Bill is 11.59pm on Friday, 10 January 2025.

The anti-poverty groups supporting this press release are:Child Poverty Action Group, Citizens Advice Bureau NZ, NZ Disability Advisory Trust, NZ Council of Christian Social Services, Parents of Vision Impaired NZ, Disabled Persons Assembly NZ Inc, United Community Action Network, Action Station.