Louise Upston: Social Development Minister on sanctions for beneficiaries

More benefit sanctions are coming in today for beneficiaries not meeting their requirements. 

People on a main benefit like Jobseeker Support could be hit with money management and community work sanctions if they fail to meet one of their obligations, which involve preparing or looking for work. 

One sanction means half of a person's benefit would be put on a payment card for four weeks - only to be used at approved, essential retailers. 

Social Development Minister Louise Upston talks to Mike Hosking about the sanctions. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
More benefit sanctions come in today for those not meeting

(00:02):
their requirements. Payment cards being introduced. They can only be
used to approve retailers. Minister for Social Development and Employment
Louise Upstein back with us. Good morning, Good morning to you, Mike.
So today's new sanctions. Was this always part of the
bigot picture or has this come out of leftish field.

Speaker 2 (00:18):
No, this was one of the plans we had coming
into the campaign to have additional non financial sanctions and
to make sure that those on welfare fulfill their obligations.

Speaker 1 (00:29):
What do you gain by doing this, Well, we.

Speaker 2 (00:33):
Ensure that those who are receiving welfare are taking the
steps they need to to help themselves find a job,
and that there's clear consequences when they don't.

Speaker 1 (00:43):
Right, is this just job the people looking for jobs
or is this welfare generally? And if it's just welfare generally,
what will they have not done to get this particular sanction.

Speaker 2 (00:54):
Well, we've got a target to reduce the number of
people on job seeker benefits, so I do focus on
job seekers first, but it does apply more broadly and
these are really common sense things that help people find
a job. Turn up to MSD, turn up to a
job interview, have a CV, take a job if it's offered.

Speaker 1 (01:14):
Is it a punishment? I mean you're still getting the
same amount of money, it's just you can't go spend
it on booze, on vaping.

Speaker 2 (01:20):
I mean it's a different it's a different type of punishment,
and it's non financial. And look, at the end of
the day, we want more people to be taking the
steps they need to to find a job. So actually
they're practical and common sense, and we want to see
fewer people on welfare and more people in work.

Speaker 1 (01:39):
Are you wandering into people's personal rights at this particular
point in time if they're not doing you know, you're
saying you can't go here, you can't shop there. You
starts a fairly delicate ground, aren't you.

Speaker 2 (01:52):
No, definitely not. They have a choice. They receive welfare
from other taxpayers, so they have obligations to take certain steps.
So absolutely I reject that this is trampling on their rights.
If they don't want to have these consequences, all they
have to do is comply with their obligations. It's pretty simple.

Speaker 1 (02:13):
How many people on the light system, and of those people,
how many people do you think will end up on
this sort of particular punishment.

Speaker 2 (02:21):
Well, in terms of the traffic light system, the great
news is that ninety eight percent are on green and
only one point two are in red, So less than
four thousand people are in red, which means they face consequences.
That's a very small number.

Speaker 1 (02:37):
Whacking them again, is that going to help you, reckon
or are they just beyond help?

Speaker 2 (02:42):
Well, we just want them to take things, take the
steps that we believe will help them get closer towards
a job. So they're simple, they're practical, and they will
help themselves as they take these steps.

Speaker 1 (02:54):
Through shout at Luiz Almson, Minister for Social Development and Employment.
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