Wednesday, April 16, 2014

Should NZ introduce time-limits on welfare?

Should NZ introduce time-limits on welfare?

That's the subject of a piece I provided to Muriel Newman's New Zealand Centre for Political Debate.

And Muriel asks, Has Welfare Reform Gone Far Enough?

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I've often thought about this, and wondered if I am a cold-hearted scrooge for thinking it, but is there any reason why the DPB (or whatever it's called today)should be paid to solo parents more than seven years in a lifetime? If there is a good reason, can you let me know?

S.Beast said...

The DPB as it used to be called isn't just used for solo parents caring for their own child, it can be used when someone becomes a guardian of a child.

The old DPB-cargiver (not a clue what the new name is) was used when someone taking care of a family member with high needs had to give up work to look after them. It works out cheaper than the gov't paying for a nursing home.

Both situations would not be great social or economic outcomes with time limits.

We should never penalise those who sacrifice productive careers or other personal goals and step up to take personal responsibility in situations like these. People who do this are the close to saints IMHO.

Lindsay Mitchell said...

I said in the article that the Supported Living Payment (ex invalid and carer's benefit) should not be subject to time limits.

Anonymous said...

It works out cheaper than the gov't paying for a nursing home.

The "gov't" doesn't have any money and doesn't pay for anything. You mean "works out cheaper than taxpayers paying for a nursing home".

Well there is another obvious solution that is even better for taxpayer: real personal responsibility laws.

That way taxpayers don't have to pay for any of this stuff!