Work Ready New Zealanders on Welfare Amid Labour Shortage Has ‘Got to Stop’: ACT Party Leader

Pedestrians and shoppers on Ponsonby Road in Auckland, New Zealand, on July 27, 2022. (Phil Walter/Getty Images)

New Zealand’s ACT Party Leader David Seymour said they would put work-ready Kiwis receiving welfare benefits under “income management” to encourage them to take up jobs.

According to the Ministry of Social Development (pdf), of the 170,000 people receiving a Jobseeker Support benefit at the end of September, 98,900 were classified as “work ready.”

Seymour said under the ACT Party, these people would be able to claim enough benefits for life necessities, “but it’s not going to be a holiday again and again and again.”

“They’re not actually working,” he told the AM show. “I talk to employers who say people come in, and they do the interview, get the stamp and then go back to WINZ (Work and Income New Zealand) and keep getting the benefit. And that’s got to stop.”

“We say, if you do that, we'll put you on income management.”

Considering how businesses across all sectors were all trying to attract more workers, Seymour said there if people “get offered a job, they should take it.”

Minister for Social Development Carmel Sepuloni said the drop in people receiving the work-ready benefit was the result of the Labour government’s support to get more people into employment, education, and training.

“With more people moving off benefit and into work, unemployment at a near record low of 3.3 per cent, and incomes growing at a higher rate since records began, it’s clear that while there’s more work to be done, our plan is working,” she said in October.

Low Unemployment

His comments come after Stats NZ revealed the unemployment rate remained at a low 3.3 percent.

Stats NZ senior manager Becky Collett said unemployment and underutilisation rates have been sitting at or near record lows for more than a year.

While low unemployment is typically a reason for celebration, Seymour said it actually represented a labour crisis.

Before COVID, net migration to New Zealand climbed to over 78,000 before dropping into the negatives.

“Post-COVID, New Zealand is losing a net 10,000 migrants a year. Instead of gaining around 120,000 migrants in the past two years, New Zealand has lost 20,000,” Seymour said.

“Unfortunately, New Zealand is not the attractive destination it once was.”

Adrian Orr, the governor of the Reserve Bank of New Zealand, said the single biggest constraint on businesses, both in New Zealand and internationally, was labour shortages.

“The challenge at present is there is a labour shortage globally, and it’s the most competitive market for resources internationally,” he told the Finance and Expenditure Committee.