Social Development Minister Louise Upston says the two new sanctions being introduced for beneficiaries are practical and will help improve their chances of finding a job.
Upston said, from tomorrow, anyone failing an obligation for the first time must either do a minimum of three job-search activities every week, or attend one or more employment-related training courses.
This follows two other sanctions introduced earlier this year as part of the Traffic Light System, which put half of a benefit on a payment card or required community work experience for those who failed to meet what was considered their obligations.
Just consider this Government’s cruel war on beneficiaries.
Right now, thousands of people in Aotearoa New Zealand are being sanctioned by the Ministry of Social Development. These sanctions reduce already inadequate incomes and punish families who are struggling to survive.
CPAG’s recent Below the Income Floor research shows that more and more households relying on income support are in deficit. That means their income is falling below the bare minimum needed to cover essentials, let alone to participate fully in society.
While the Government insists sanctions are about “compliance”, the facts tell a different story. Sanctions rose sharply in both the March and June 2025 quarters, even before the Social Security Amendment Act 2025 came into effect in May.
In reality, there are many reasons why someone might miss an MSD appointment, ranging from childcare, to health or transport issues, all made worse by the prolonged cost of living crisis. A Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB) client had their benefit halved after they missed their Work and Income meeting due to their child being unwell.
Instead of recognising these barriers, the Government continues to punish families who are already doing it tough, despite the Government restating its commitment in May to the legislated 2028 goal of halving child poverty.
…When unemployment is 5.2 and predicted to rise, these new welfare sanctions are just political cruelty…
New ‘non-financial’ benefit sanctions begin today
New “non-financial” benefit sanctions starting today are about having “more tools available” than the current options, says the Minister for Social Development.
…the ‘Money Management’ punishment is called a ‘non-financial’ sanction, but that’s bullshit! It cuts welfare in half by 50% and forces it onto a card that people can’t use to pay rent or bills with…
New welfare sanctions could stop families paying rent, officials warn
Welfare officials say new Government policy, introducing new ways to sanction beneficiaries who did not meet their obligations to MSD, could lead to consequences such as families being unable to pay rent and basic bills.
The comment came during a scrutiny week hearing, in which Green and Labour MPs sounded alarm about new sanctions and whether the Government would dust off dormant provisions of the Social Security Act to punish parents who fail to meet “social obligations”.
…it is designed to make being on welfare impossible, that’s the point.
The second sanction is ‘Community Work Experience’ which again is a set of hoops that if not completed leads to cuts in welfare.
The reason the Government are introducing these new sanctions is because the Regulatory Impact Statement for the legislation warned these new penalties “exacerbates the risk of a client facing hardship”, and that’s the point!
This is designed yo be so difficult people are forced off welfare.
Only 1.2% of beneficiaries are currently not complying with the existing job ready demands so this Government has created new ‘non-financial’ tactics to use to make people not comply!
Once someone is sanctioned with a ‘Money Management scheme’ or ‘Community Work Experience scheme’ they become ineligible for emergency housing or special needs grants so that they fall over on purpose!
MSD now want 6 monthly reviews but hilariously they cut workers so can’t manage a 6 month review – what was the Government’s solution? Why they will use AI to find a discrepancy to penalise you with and they will use AI to reject your claim so you are forced to find a real staff member to try and get it back.
They have doubled the length of time they can punish you for when trawling through your life and there is actually no clear path off the ‘Money Management scheme’ or ‘Community Work Experience scheme’ once you get punished with it.
This Government is so hell bent on screwing over the poor to find their tax cuts for the rich, they’ve even gone after sole parents whop rent a room out to a Boarder!
Labour accuses govt of trying to avoid scrutiny by passing bill under urgency
A post-Budget debate about changes to an accommodation supplement unusually dragged on into the early hours of Saturday morning, as opposition parties tried in vain to block the changes.
The House sat under urgency to debate a dozen bills, when a vote on the Social Assistance Legislation (Accommodation Supplement and Income-related Rent) Amendment Bill was called at about 11.30pm.
Usually, Parliament would not sit beyond midnight, but once a vote commences, it cannot stop without leave. That leave was sought by Labour MP Kieran McAnulty, but denied by government MPs.
Instead, opposition parties filed dozens of minor amendments, dragging out the proceedings. McAnulty accused the government of trying to avoid scrutiny by passing the bill under urgency.
“There’s no reason for this bill to go through under urgency, it’s got nothing to do with the Budget really,” he told RNZ. “They are going to try and save money from this bill to fill the gaps in their Budget.
“It should go to select committee and New Zealanders should have an opportunity to have their say.”
“We saw this with the Pay Equity Bill recently and now they’re doing it with this bill as well, and we oppose it. Many New Zealanders don’t know it’s happening, because it’s getting rushed through.”
Under the change, every boarder a person has will be taken into account, when their accommodation supplement is calculated by Work and Income. Currently, only those with three or more boarders have their supplement reduced.
McAnulty said more than 7000 people would be affected by the changes, which would reduce subsidies by roughly $100 a week.
How spiteful is this Government?
They rammed through under urgency legislation originally set up to try and help Sole Parents with housing costs by allowing them 2 Boarders to help pay the rent.
These changes will force Sole Parents who have Boarders to now include their share of the rent in their own housing allowance calculations meaning those sole parents (or head tenants) who have 1 or 2 Boarders will lose $100 a week in their own housing allowance!
It is such a spiteful and brutal thing to do to Renters who have a Boarder to help cover costs, these people are not rolling in cash, they are just keeping their heads above water.
National are so desperate to take money from the poor to fund the rich, they are coming after sole parent renters who have a Boarder!
National take today what tomorrow never brings!
Then there is their weird Gimp advert bashing teenagers on welfare.
AI video but real effective policy pic.twitter.com/6h9uaQWqXA
— NZ National Party (@NZNationalParty) October 14, 2025
So much to unpack here.
Firstly, why is Labour shaped like Gumby playing video games with a teenager, because that seems pretty cool…
…secondly, why are National in a blue gimp suit and why are they breaking into their house…
…why is National’s penis so tiny?
That is A LOT of small dick energy in one tweet.
Why is the National Party channeling the Pulp Fiction gimp?
Is the National Party Gimp expecting some kind of sado-masochistic 3some with the teenager and Labour Party Gumby now he’s shut off the Video Game?
Note that once the National Party Gimp is standing in their lounge room, the teenager and Labour Gumby flee…
…so the message here is small penis National Party Gimp will break into your home, stand threateningly over you until you run away?
Is this a social policy or weird sexual fantasy?
Look.
Prime Minister Chris Luxon decided to do what the National Party have always done when polls are dropping, and that is to bash the dirty filthy bennies by forcing 18 and 19 year olds off welfare and calling that ‘tough love’, even those who are disabled FFS…
Hundreds of teens with a health condition, disability may be cut from Jobseeker benefit
…when asked where these teenagers were supposed to get jobs, the PM claimed that businesses were calling out for young workers.
When contacted by media about those claims, Business said, ‘no we are not, we are barely staying afloat as it is”.
Bashing the dirty filthy bennie is always a vote winner when the economy fails and Chris Luxon is so weak he needs to bash teenagers on benefits to look tough.
Telling unemployed teenagers that “The world doesn’t owe you a living” is all fine and dandy, but he’s also the Prime Minister who has destroyed 6000 jobs in retail and hospo while destroying 20 000 in construction. The world doesn’t owe anyone a living but equally where are they supposed to get a job when he’s so busy destroying them?
This isn’t ‘tough love’, it’s ‘Manufactured righteousness
How does removing the jobless benefit from 4,300 unemployed 18-19 year olds and making them stay or return home to be supported by parents on less than $65,529 per annum going to help any single one of them find a job?
There are 216 000 people on jobseeker benefits and only 10 442 jobs open around the country. With 15 000 18 to 19 year olds on job seeker – where on earth are they supposed to get jobs while competing against older job seekers?
Unemployment is 6.2% in Auckland – Ikea received more than 25,000 applicants for 500 positions at its new Auckland mega-store. Doesn’t that level of desperation make the Prime Ministers comments look cruel and out of touch?
The Prime Minister said “If you want a job, you go where the jobs are I encourage anyone to do what it takes to get a job.” – they are doing that and 210 are fleeing to Australia every day – how is that a positive outcome?
Bashing these teenage beneficiaries and cutting them off welfare will only save $39million per year. This isn’t a real social policy is it, this is a revenge fantasy masquerading as a social policy
Luxon’s advice to the 15,045 teenagers on the jobseeker benefit was, “The world doesn’t owe you a living”, ok – but surely he’s responsible for crashing the economy and tanking the jobs they can’t find – why are the teenagers responsible but he isn’t?
This isn’t a real response to the economic crash his policies have created, this a just a virtue signal to his redneck reactionary base who hate beneficiaries and want to give them the bash.
I’m not sure how small penis National Party Gimp is helping convince anyone that these brutal sanctions are anything other than a weird fetish.
At some point, you as Kiwis, you as Egalitarians, you as the children of Universal Suffrage, Nucle free, the 40 hour working week, surely you will get off your knees for the corporations and the rich and stand against this obscenity of. government.
Surely you haven’t been so manipulated by your post-Covid bitterness that you are now slaves to the rich?
Who are you Kiwi?
Get off your knees in servitude to the rich.
Rise Kiwi.
Rise.
Increasingly having independent opinion in a mainstream media environment which mostly echo one another has become more important than ever, so if you value having an independent voice – please donate here.
More and more kiwis are rising Martyn, they’ve had enough…
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/migration-kiwis-still-leaving-new-zealand-in-record-numbers/WPEHJT7NBZHSFFBHZEIOU5GTF4/
Here in Aussie, there is cheaper electricity, cheaper fuel, cheaper groceries and the higher expenses people like to compare Aussie to NZ with, like house prices and car registration costs are offset by much higher wages.
It is a no brainer. Compare to what is happening in NZ at the moment there is only one part of society not doing it tough and that is about 5% of the wealthiest population where money is not an issue.
They do it for the following reasons:
1. They are cunts.
2. It makes them look like they’re doing something other than further fucking the country in the arse with a chainsaw.
3. The poors lack the resources to adequately defend themselves, and National love nothing more than beating the shit out of someone who has their arms tied behind their back.
4. They are, and have always been, cunts.
6. The frothing talkback crowd to whom National love tossing bloody gobbets of red meat, don’t give a single, solitary fuck about bennies other than to rail at them for “stealing our hard-earned tax dollars like the bone-idle parasites you are!”
5. They are massive, shameless, wholly unrepentant cunts.
You may have noticed a theme developing here. (They also love to shit on teachers, doctors, nurses, those on minimum wage, Maori, Palestinians, the homeless, the disabled, and women. If you’re not a landlord or a tobacco company, get fucked.)
Very strong comment with which I agree 100% .This minister is another in the long line of cunty women in this government .Jesus just imagine what sort of mother and wife she is ,she makes cruela devillelook like an angel and goldilocks rolled into one .
She’s not married, her husband left years ago, he saw the writing on the wall.
I’d prefer the metaphor limp useless impotent flaccid dicks! LOL
I see that Judith says we can’t afford more than 1% for the teachers, so I expect politicians and other government jobs will only get 1% also? Without waiting, I suspect that our politicians will graciously accept a higher increase than that while claiming that they are a vital service and would be worth more elsewhere. Most of them should be made to work for nothing if they were paid their true worth, in my opinion.
And here is the point about percentage measures again. Only getting 1% rise is next to nothing if you are getting nothing much anyway, whereas if you get $100,000 perannum than it is almost worthwhile at $1,000 pa or about $20 per week. But inflation over the years has mounted, and of course the 15% GST goes up with the rising tide
I think we should have set blocks of money instead of percentages – those below $50,000 get $5,000 pa more plus supermarket vouchers that can be handed in at any of the big 4? from November on to help with Christmas to the tune of $1000;
over $50,000 a block of $10,000 pa but no supermarket vouchers. What you get is matched to your expectations, but never very much as you get higher. That would make everyone work harder ha ha.
1% increases for teachers will not cover this…
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/contact-energy-gas-price-hike-tens-of-thousands-of-customers-will-see-average-17-jump/YIMQVKUUOBDQHIKKNYDN3NAXQQ/
jesus wept ,these arseholes have destroyed 100k jobs and are destroying more each day .Now the on going cost of that bullshit policy is giving Willis a right reaming .The stupid bastards have no idea about anything .Common sense will tell you if you cut 100k jobs you then have to support those people .There are now 200000 less tax payers in NZ since this bunch of shit heads were elected so thats 10% of the work force we had not paying tax .5% Of the work force have left NZ AND THE OTER 5% are now considered to be bludgers .A woman told me the other day they should get off their arse and get a job because there are heaps of jobs out there .I asked if I could start work in her business tomorrow and the answer was NO we dont have enough work .I rest my case .She could not direct me to a single one of these thousands of jobs she spoke about .When I pointed out that there were only 16k jobs advertised on the two main job sites and that was 5 people per job she was even more stupid looking .
Stand in the corner Upton. ‘You lie in your teeth – which are false.’
The post neoliberal gangster clan that we have isn’t our governance. Please let’s not forget that.
The most polite way I can describe them as being is cheap management over paid to do the dirty work of the few corporate criminal lobbyists who now strong-arm us into what can only be described as the outcome of a Professor Stanley Milgram experiment on a grand scale.
Luxon, peters and seymour aren’t politicians. Neither is hipkins and his entourage of six-figure hangers on. They’re not there for us, they’re there for themselves. Let that sink in. That’s our REALITY. That’s the environment we must try to be happy with while pinned down under. I understand that my view of our reality might seem somewhat extreme but none the less, it IS our reality. We’re allowing a kind of lower class mafia to extort our money from us while [they] undermine our right to enjoy our lives by maintaining control. I scare myself when I write that because I know that, that is what it is. We’re not in control of our lives through our politics. They are. They control us. Headstone Head Upston and her scary kind.
” New benefit sanctions will help beneficiaries find jobs, says Social Development Minister Louise Upston ”
She’s a liar. That, is a lie and not that flash a one neither. “…benefit sanctions…” can’t help. What the fucks the positive outcome for making, in this case, younger people’s lives more difficult? That’s fucking work-house logic. She’s a fucking liar and she needs to go. I don’t care where, hopefully Australia, but otherwise that psycho nut job needs to no longer be on our payroll. And neither do ANY of the other losers currently pocketing our money at a rate of hundreds of thousands of dollars each annually then start mouthing off about how getting tough by impoverishing young people is somehow good news. Only a fucking psychopath could think that.
Here’s one for you. While Headstone Head upston squeezes out brain farts to give kids sleepless nights lets ponder the net wealth incomes of the four now australian owned banks asb, anz, bnz and westpac. $580,000 dollars net profit an hour. AN HOUR. FIVE HUNDRED AND EIGHTY THOUSAND DOLLARS NET AN HOUR 24/7/365. Honestly, this is no longer funny. These fuckers need to go. We need to get rid of them.
There’s a way. It’s not a snap election either. It’s when the crown, in this case the Governor General, can dissolve the government and take temporary control of our politic. I can’t fucking remember what it’s called.
Oh wait! Yes, I can. It’s titled ‘The Reserve Powers’
Give this a read and see what you think.
https://gg.govt.nz/office-governor-general/roles-and-functions-governor-general/constitutional-role/reserve-powers
” Other reserve powers are to dismiss a Prime Minister, to force a dissolution of Parliament and call new elections, to refuse a Prime Minister’s request for an election, and to refuse assent to legislation.”
Luxon, Chipkins and neoliberalism is destroying us as a people and as a society for the fortunes creations of a few individuals. That. Must. Stop.
Those few pricks in our parliament are a disaster on all fronts. They must go. To prison hopefully.
Stuff
The astounding profit Australian banks make in New Zealand every hour
https://www.stuff.co.nz/money/350557023/the-astounding-profit-australian-banks-make-in-new-zealand-every-hour
Australian banks are making $580,000 in New Zealand every hour, money a former Kiwi banker says should be staying in the country.
Sam Stubbs joined The AM Show on Wednesday after developing a tool to track the profits of the four Australian banks operating here – ANZ, ASB, BNZ and Westpac.
Is Headstone Head Upston going to mention the above while trying to sell her lies to the already impoverished?
You have distilled a heady essence of philosophy there kwtc. What a brew, what bouquet, perfect. Only we have to have some little ideas that support us while we are going for Reserve Powers. And we are talking about people who are clear that they support kindly plus practical measures, and once the plan is talked out, checked for outcomes and traps along the way before we start anything. I find there are so many people still pushing their own barrow within any group, sure they are right, confident that the outcomes will fill the need, and without loyalty or commitment to their fellows – I was amazed and disillusioned.
The SAS has certain types of men in it, they are different and go further and bolder than any ordinary person. Seem to be psychopaths when I read about them. So how to get people who are more daring and determined, but still with the controls needed to match the kindly and practical which seem essential?. I have worked with people who are one and not the other and I didn’t want them influencing my children/s future.
Here is an idea.
The government says these sanctions are about ‘compliance.’ People need to perform certain actions in return for taxpayer money income.
So to show the way and set an example;
If a cabinet minister promises to have reduced inflation within a certain time period, and fails to do so, then that cabinet minister forgoes a portion of his/her salary( say 30percent) for failure to ‘comply’ with the target the government set.
The same can apply for ‘non-compliance’ to reduce unemployment, ‘non-compliance’ to house homeless, ‘Non-compliance’ to reduce the prison population, ‘non-compliance’ to raise incomes.
In fact, considering that this government has ‘non-complied’ on most of its targets I consider this a clever way to recover a great deal of taxpayer money.
Regrds to all
It makes no difference how we try to explain what is happening, it’s not being absorbed by the HEARTLESS, GREEDY, SORTED out there. So long a they are ok they couldn’t give a stuff about those whose struggles are getting worse by the day. Then as if that isn’t the limit they “force” them to play their stupid, sick, cruel games and punish them over and over. Silly them, as there will be a huge rebellion very soon as people decide they have had enough of being treated like SH&T. As said this CoC-up lot have learnt nothing in the two years they have been the govt. They seem happy for the “top feeders” to go bankrupt, or into liquidation, receivership – whatever take your pick! Who will pay their outstandings – the needy again? Everyone owing money to IRD, Contractors etc. should pay every last cent until the day they die – they are bludgers, parasites, thieves, and the lowest of the low. And what’s more they will do it again under a rellie’s name – it’s just too easy! This CoC mob DISGUSTS ME TO THE CORE! The day of reckoning is fast approaching.
That gimp looks remarkably like Sam Uffindell.
Even acts just like him.
I am in now way defending sanctions but I would say 95% of beneficiaries have their rent paid by winz (out of their benefits) so the card thing won’t effect them that much. I also have no problem with work schemes if they are done properly and not just tendered to some fool who knows the system to get the contract but has no skills to pass on, other than maybe basic CV instruction. The old CWS (16-18) and .. i think it was called PPP? for 18+ of the 80’s was great. You attended for six months and It gave you a little more then the benefit but you got hands on experience with building, painting, forestry, landscaping etc etc. It also taught you how to turn up. All attendees got their licence if they didn’t already have it. Not only that almost all attendees left with a job. (myself? I left for a cabinet making laborers position) Nowadays its just baby sitting to fulfill their contract.