Man angry voluntary work cuts benefit

Press, 15 February 1989, Page 3

Man angry voluntary work cuts benefit

DEBORAH MCPHERSON

An unemployed Kaiapoi man is angry and frustrated at being told he will lose his unemployment benefit if he accepts voluntary full-time work.

“I’m trying to get myself off my bum, but the Social Welfare Department told me my benefit will get the chop,” said Mr Derek Overton, yesterday. Mr Overton, aged 49, a electronic technician with experience in managing, has been unemployed for three years. Last week he decided to seek full-time voluntary work with the Intellectually Handicapped Society, who were willing to accept him as a volunteer for an unpaid full-time job. But he was told his

unemployment benefit would be cut, because he would not be able to actively seek paid work. “There are no jobs in North Canterbury, particularly for someone my age,” he said. "I am trying to put something back into the community, but I expect to at least get a liveable wage after paying my taxes all these years. “It seems the Government is prepared to pay me $134 a week to sit around doing nothing. I can’t understand the system.”

Mr Overton, who is already committed to community work as a Lifeline counsellor, said he had considered going back to school full-time as a mature student, but had again been told he would no longer be eligible for the unemployment benefit. Voluntary work was now out of the question. "I still have to pay the bills.” The department’s assistant director of benefits and pensions, Mr Cliff Money, said to be eligible

to receive the benefit, people had to be unemployed, eligible to work, and to be actively seeking work. In the department’s experience people who were paid by' the State to do a voluntary job, “got comfortable there and tended not to actively seek other paid work.” He suggested, however, the department might have to be more flexible in its approach in the light of the present high unemployment, particularly in North Canterbury.