Jobless benefit plan decried

Press, 10 February 1983, Page 19

Jobless benefit plan decried

Parliamentary reporter • Labours proposals for the ' reform of the unemployment benefit would be an “openended hand-out of public funds” that taxpayers would not be prepared to support, said the Minister of Social Welfare, Mr Young. He was replying to proposals by the Deputy Leader of the Opposition. Mr Palmer, for changes in the administration of the benefit. Mr Palmer said that some unemployment benefits were taxed and some were not; that different rules applied to single and married people; different stand-down periods for different categories of beneficiary; changing standards on what constituted reasonable steps to get work; special rules for seasonal and high income earners; and special rules for students. A simplified system such as Mr Palmer described

would cost “many millions of dollars and be major change in policy,” Mr Young said. ; “Labour obviously ' has little regard for the taxpayers' pocket.” The simplified system worked in the United Kingdom where 13 per cent of workers were unemployed, but New Zealand had the lowest level of unemployment of the O.E.C.D. countries. “Mr Palmer’s proposal would pay the benefit solely on the evidence that the applicant was not receiving income,” he said. The conditions at present applying in New Zealand were that the applicant had to be available for full-time work and be actively seeking employment, and that the benefit would be suspended if an applicant rejected offered work or resigned voluntarily from a job, Mr Young said.