As a beneficiary advocate supporting beneficiaries in Upper Hutt and across the Wellington region for 22 years, I can categorically say that living on a benefit is no life style and beneficiaries need no carrot and stick policies dreamed up by national to make beneficiaries conform and get out and get a job. The real issue is that people with health issues that make them unfit for full-time employment are not on the right benefit and should be on a long term benefit the Supported living payment (SLP).
Work and income are remiss in ensuring that those who cannot sustain full-time employment for over Fifteen hours a week are receiving the correct benefit which was once called (unfortunately) the invalid’s benefit. The medical profession colludes with the gate keeping of this benefit which increases the ill health of unwell vulnerable people.
When PM Luxon talks about taking beneficiaries off the Job seeker support benefit (JSS) who have been receiving it for three years what he is really saying is people with long term health issues are actually, on the wrong benefit and should have been receiving the SLP instead of the JSS for the entire time.
National is dog whistling to get your vote. What they should be telling you is their current track record for example, that on the 2nd of November any 18- or 19-year-old without work will no longer be eligible for a JSS benefit unless their parents including stepparents’ income is under 67000 annually. Or that seniors who have boarders living with them now have the board payment included in their income assessment. Often, they are seniors with adult children with complex health issues who they are supporting because the health system can’t.
If you want to know the truth about the people financially dependent on a benefit, then do some investigation rather than allow the National party and their coalition to rally up votes, as they lose popularity due to their inability to do, their job, and manage employment, by benefit bashing.
Teresa Homan
Service Manager
Hutt Valley Benefit Service Trust BEST
A “thank you” to Teresa Homan for sending this letter to The Upper Hutt Connection.
19/10/26
