Corporate welfare

This is fairly staggering.

Businesses are receiving up to $17,000 from taxpayers for each beneficiary they employ, but Work and Income cannot say how many are kept on after the 12-month subsidy ends. The Job Plus scheme has subsidised the wages of 123,000 beneficiaries working as labourers, restaurant staff, builders, salespeople and machinery operators since it began in 1998. The scheme provides up to $214 a week for every participant.

I can't work out how $214 x 52 becomes $17,000 but anyway....is there any check on whether the subsidised employers keep the ex-beneficiary after the year-long subsidy ends?

According to Ray Smith, deputy CE of the Ministry of Social Development, "Our overall measure isn't whether the employers hang on to the individual, it's whether or not they come back on to a benefit".

If it became apparent that an employer was regularly accessing Job Plus and not providing work after the subsidy ended then Work and Income "would stop working with them".

Stop working with them. That's reassuring.