New scheme to help unemployed in provinces

Press, 27 November 1986, Page 1

New scheme to help unemployed in provinces

By

OLIVER RIDDELL

in Wellington

A package of measures to help people in regions suffering from rising unemployment has been released by the Government

Transitional Adjustment Employment was a scheme to heip people in the provincial areas explore employment prospects so that they and their regions could adjust better to the changes occurring in the economy, said the Minister of Employment, Mr Burke.

The scheme had been designed specifically to ease the social costs of those changes on unemployed people.

He said the Government had been mindful of the damage that would result from a return to fully subsidised employment schemes such as P.E.P.

"These would only result in unemployed people being once again locked into a straitjacket of continuing dependence on the State. That way has been tried and has failed,” Mr Burke said. The new package has three elements: Increases in the rates of subsidy

under the Job Opportunities Scheme; enhanced job-search and mobility assistance; and the Community Employment Investigation Scheme. The increased Job Opportunities Scheme subsidy rates sought to maintain the real level of employment assistance, Mr Burke said.

The existing subsidy rates each week for wages subsidy and selfemployment under the scheme of Si 32 for 13 weeks, then SB3 for another 13 weeks, are to be increased to $l5O a week and then $lOO a week respectively. Rates for special groups are to rise from $llO a week for two years to $l3O a week.

Rates for the development option are proposed to rise from $275 a week for the first year and $165 a week for the second year to $325 and $195 a week.

Mr Burke said that because subsidies available

under the Job Opportunities Scheme might not in themselves be adequate in some areas, and also where there was an under-supply of available jobs for those people seeking work, the Government had introduced two further measures.

The job-search and relocation assistance had been enhanced to provide a job-search grant of up to $lOOO for unemployed jobseekers, and a grant of up to $2OOO for someone moving to take up a confirmed job offer where a change in housing accommodation was involved. This measure was to lower the costs for unemployed job-seekers wishing to move to obtain employment, he said.

Previous assistance had covered the costs of the least-cost transport, and up to $6OO for household removal expenses. The Community Employment Investigation scheme was to help unemployed people living in

areas suffering rapid and significant job losses greater than the local labour market could absorb effectively.

This would help in the short term to explore options for alternative employment within the region, he said.

The scheme could also apply in regions with a rapid increase in registered non-seasonal unemployment. Applications would be submitted from the regional community for grant assistance of up to 90 per cent of estimated exploratory costs, to investigate the feasibility of proposals that were new to the individual or group and which would increase the chances of their gaining unsubsidised employment.

There would be provision for $500,000 for the rest of 1986-87 and $5 million for 1987-88, to cover the costs of the scheme, Mr Burke said.