Christine Rankin: Former WINZ CEO says regular check-ins for beneficiaries will be beneficial

There’s a belief that regular check-ins for beneficiaries will result in more people working. 

People on Jobseeker are now required to attend the Ministry of Social Development's 'work check in' seminars. 

The first will be after two weeks of signing on and another after six months. 

Former WINZ boss Christine Rankin told Mike Hosking that there's a huge need for the entry-level jobs in question. 

She says it's a Jobseeker's responsibility to find a job that pays more than a benefit, which Rankin says isn't hard to do. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Crack down on those. You're taken a bit easy on
the old job seekers arrived. You will now have to
do a work check in after six months to assess
how that search is going. Started yesterday. It's part of
the wider welfare reset. The former Winsbass Christine ranking is
whether it's Christine morning.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
To you, good morning, MIKEE.

Speaker 1 (00:14):
Is there subtlety and nuance in this under the current system?
Of course, the market's tightening up. There are fewer jobs
about when you go in and go look, I know
I've been unemployed for six months, but here are my qualifications,
here's what I've applied to. There are no jobs. Does
that get taken into account?

Speaker 2 (00:29):
I think there'll be some kind of balance from there.
But most of the jobs that we are really talking
about our entry level jobs, and wherever you go there
is still a huge need. Like you're not expected to
get the job that you've normally had. Your responsibility is
to get a job that pays you more than a benefit,
and that is still not a hard thing to do.

(00:52):
There's a lot of need out there in certain areas,
so I don't think that's done to what you're not
supposed to get the job you had before. Unless that
is easily available to you. Your benefit is a privilege,
not a right, and I think that's been confused over
the years, particularly with the last government.

Speaker 1 (01:12):
So how much do you reckon of one hundred and
sixty seventy eighty thousand people on job seeker, what percentage
roughly do you believe are just trying it on?

Speaker 2 (01:22):
Oh, easily thirty or forty.

Speaker 1 (01:23):
Percent their big numbers. Now that's tens of thousands of people.

Speaker 2 (01:28):
Yeah, it is. And you've got to remember, you get
on a benefit and a lot of things happened to
you. You lose any confidence you ever had. You become complacent.
It's not an easy life. But a lot of people
do other things to prop up their benefit and we've
never faced that in New Zealand either. Well we have
in the past. You know, we had benefit crime squads
which were seen as a terrible thing but detected huge

(01:51):
one hundred million dollars a year when I was there
twenty years ago. Tip of the Iceberg, Tip of the iceberg?

Speaker 1 (01:58):
Do you think this will actually work?

Speaker 2 (02:00):
Yeah? I do. I think the program's going to get
more and more comprehensive. I was a bit worried to
hear that it's a six month check. I think that's
giving them a long time to get off of benefit.
But I'm sure that that will tighten up. This government
and this minister are really serious about this, and anyone
who thinks it's going to go away and the pressure

(02:20):
is going to come off, I'm absolutely sure they're.

Speaker 1 (02:23):
Role good stuff. Christine good to catch up. Appreciated Christine
Rank and former When's Boss might touch on this with
chrispher Luxan in a couple of moments. Make the contract
to subcontractor should have public liability? Insurance sounds like another
example of no accountability, let's make excuses. That's I think
why they're doing yet another investigation into it to single
out just who exactly they're going to ping for this.
But it looks like insurance is going to be covering

(02:44):
it off in some way, shape or form. The question
will be just how much of it seven twenty. For
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