The obscenity of throwing 50000 off welfare
The Government’s target to have 50,000 fewer people on a benefit by 2030 will include those who go to prison, move overseas — and those who die — not just those who enter the workforce.
It will also include people who change relationship status or switch to superannuation — but the Government says this will be offset by people flowing onto the benefit.
It’s prompted Labour to accuse the Government of “dishonesty” about whether the target is about getting people into work or just “pushing people off benefits” — something the Government has rejected.
The target is 50,000 fewer people on the Jobseeker Support benefit by 2030 — comparing December 2023 figures to December 2029.
Social Development Minister Louise Upston confirmed all types of benefit exits — not just those going into work, training or study — would be counted in the target figure when 1News inquired.
She said any suggestion they impacted the target “in any meaningful way” was a “red herring” because people will also join the benefit in the same period — such as returning to New Zealand or leaving prison.
But Labour’s social development spokesperson Carmel Sepuloni said she believed it was “a dishonesty to the target and the purpose of the target” and it showed the Government was not focused on getting people into work, but simply getting them off the Jobseeker benefit.
The political project of the Right is to starve the State of revenue so that wealth can’t be redistributed in the first place.
They attack the universals the Left fund and build to only focus on funding the ‘worst case scenario’ welfare cases which only serves to drive more people into poverty rather than give them a standard of living they can grow from.
Indeed this Government’s agenda will push up to 13000 children into poverty!
The reason the mental health foundation need to cut is because this Government is more focused on the interests of their donor mates than the people of New Zealand.
We need a new taxation and regulation model to stop the neoliberal rot. We need to remove the yoke of taxation from the 90% and reset it to the 10% richest.
The Big Tech Tzars have manipulated our collective fear, ego, anger and insecurities through social media hate algorithms in a way that has led to the largest psychological civil war ever launched against one another.
Meanwhile, the planet burns and every aspect of our existence is monetarised for big data to sell us more stuff we can’t afford. We are alienated and anesthetized by a consumer culture that keeps us neurotic and disconnected. Our work, our existence, every move we make are all built to suck money to a minority class that sits above us while under neoliberalism, globalization, financialization, and automation, our existence as individuals has only become more disposable.
Our people deserve better than this Government!
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Same shit different decade.
The organisation leading into the 2026 General Election has to be heavy on…
• Tax reform–CGT, Wealth tax, tax free first few grand of any earnings
• Basic Income for all citizens via IRD, retire WINZ/MSD for good, as people earn more above their BI they start to pay tax
The punitive approach to the working class and alienated is surely counter productive for the capitalist class anyway, who require consumers/customers to buy their stinking products…
National wants people of the benefit and leading fulfilling lives rather than being left there so they depend on the state for their well-being.unlike Labour
So they will throw people off the benefit , whom will resort to crime to make ends meet. You beauty Trev!!!
Show us the jobs Trev!!!
Hey Trev, wait until you or one of yours feel the cold heart of unemployment then you might grow a heart and a conscience.
Especially if they can’t get a job paying similar to their current salary.
As they oversee employment rising to a predicted 5 or so percent (at least). This is after removing any consideration of the impact on employment rates through the RBNZ’s monetary policy. You really don’t think things through Trevor.
I doubt you would employ them. Even if you did, you would screw them over, ie not let them have breaks, force them to stay after they should be finishing, refusing requests for time off, etc, and then let them go after 90 days,
How many jobs have you created
How many jobs have you created
Yeah how many jobs have you created
He is a fucking job a big fucking unpolished job
Almost as big a job as Luxon
The wellfare issue is easily fixed .Cut house prices in half along with the price of everything .Make the top tax rate 50% with bottom 35% tax free .
Keep wages at current rate and make kiwi saver compulsory and have compulsory income protection .
The current system is broken when a person can work all their life and end up owning a house if they are lucky .Then they have to rely on the state for day to day living .There are a lot of hard working people on minimum wage that never own a house because they are 50% over priced .
Unemployment is still low and vacant signs are still up in many Chch shops and hospitality. I believe anyone willing to work who is flexible and able would not be out of work for long.
The benefit can be a trap if you get too comfortable and have no ambitions.
Vacant signs in Christchurch shops because the polished turd head and his brown shirts have put the handbrake on retail business you fucking moron
Ooooh Trevor. You sound so childish, so shallow, so naive.
You don’t look further than your nose is long. It’s embarrassing (for you) and insulting (for others).
I sometimes thought you didn’t think… now I realise you cannot think.
A moron who is trapped but comfortable like a stuck turd