Recently we learned that MSD was moving its fraud investigators away from beneficiaries and onto businesses.
"...between 40 and 50 MSD staff who usually worked on benefit fraud would be working on subsidy investigations for another 12 to 18 months."
In other words, leave the non-productive alone and go after the productive - those keeping the economy afloat by working and paying taxes.
This seems par for the course now.
I note today in the Budget detail this advice from MSD:
Right now, people getting Jobseeker Support – Health and Disability don’t need to renew their medical certificates. This will continue to be deferred until the new process starts.
This applies to over 78,000 individuals.
The "new process" begins next year and entails a new medical certificate process for Jobseeker clients with a health condition, injury or a disability that affects their ability to work. It’ll be more flexible and based on their health practitioner’s advice.
It's almost certain that for some this will be a fairer process based on their genuine incapacity. But there's an equal argument that these rules need to be stringent to deter malingerers. (Most doctors will welcome the easing. They do not want to play the role of benefit gatekeepers.)
Let's quickly recap on other rules that have been eased since 2017.
Single mothers no longer have to name the father/s of their child/ren. The father pays no child support.
Single mothers who continue to add children to their benefit are no longer subject to a subsequent child policy which kept their original work obligations intact.
Annual jobseeker reapplications and stand-downs are still deferred.
And despite what Mike Hosking said on NewstalkZB this morning about sanctions increasing under Labour, he was only referring to sanctions for having an outstanding arrest warrant. I expect the Covid disruptions to courts has provoked that.
Overall sanctions are decreasing. The following are quarterly:
2 comments:
It was 48 years ago when the DPB was introduced with the aim of helping women with a dependent child or children who had lost the support of a husband, or were inadequately supported by him. The DPB was considered to be a social imperative by many who saw New Zealand as an egalitarian society.
We have come a long way since then.
1st of April 1974 and again under the labour Government, the Accident Compensation Corporation was born.
A friend told me that within a month of its introduction and on the building site where he worked, 3 chippies had incidents involving their backs, they went on ACC and were never seen again.
It was 1985 before I was introduced to the ACC when I became an Air Accident statistic. That event helped me buy my first home. The rest, as they say, is history.
I've got this idea that forms the basis of New Zealand history that we, as a species, fluctuate between being r-selected and K-selected. The mainstream right now is r-selected and part of its objective is to make the environment (economy) toxic to the K-selected and hospitable to themselves.
Ref. The Evolutionary Psychology Behind Politics: How Conservatism and Liberalism Evolved Within Humans, Anonymous Conservative (2012)
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