Ryan Bridge: Confused advice from the Ministry for Social Development - Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

Couple of stories in the news today, one of them and I'll just read you the first line from this story.

"Ministry of Social Development officials warned their minister that using payment cards as a sanction for beneficiaries can be stigmatising and open to exploitation."

What? So either the poor things will stigmatise them, will tarnish their good reputations or those bludgers that will just exploit the hell out of the cards, which is it?

Are they bad? Are they good?

It just seems a very confused piece of advice from the Ministry for Social Development, in my eyes at least.

They're going to flog them off these cards on Facebook, sell them, or are we tarnishing their good reputations by giving them to them in the first place?

When you design a system, a safety net like this, it should be done for the dignity and the simplicity of those who desperately need it.

I think we can all agree with that.

Read more