Latest news with #LaurenCrimp
RNZ News
4 days ago
- Politics
- RNZ News
Parents who condone truancy face fines
children law 16 minutes ago Parents who refuse to send their children to school are more likely to be prosecuted as the government cracks down on truancy. Association Education Minister David Seymour spoke to reporter Lauren Crimp.
Scoop
26-05-2025
- Business
- Scoop
Jobseeker Sanctions: ‘Forcing People To Volunteer Is A Contradiction In Terms'
The government is better off using its resources to help people find work, rather than punishing those who can not, says the Salvation Army. Lauren Crimp, Reporter The government is better off using its resources to help people find work, rather than punishing those who can not, says the Salvation Army. Two new 'non-financial' sanctions come into force on Monday for beneficiaries who do not meet their obligations. Some people may have half their weekly benefit put on to a payment card for four weeks, that can only be spent on essential items at approved shops. They may also have to find volunteer work for at least five hours each week, again for four weeks. Social Development Minister Louise Upston said the sanctions would encourage people off welfare and into work. 'These very fair and reasonable sanctions will allow clients to continue receiving their full benefit, instead of the 50 per cent reduction they would have experienced with a financial sanction,' she said. But Salvation Army principal social policy analyst Paul Barber said it was not the most helpful approach. 'We would really like to see Work and Income resources applied to increasing the amount of training and employment pathways, working with employers who are willing to take people on and really creating a constructive space for people to find employment,' he said. 'That's a stronger way to reduce the number of people on the Jobseeker benefit.' Barber said the Salvation Army did not support mandatory work experience for beneficiaries. He expected organisations like his would have more people knocking on their door seeking volunteer opportunities as part of the new rules, but they were not resourced to respond. 'We welcome opportunities to provide some work experience, but this needs to be done in a way that respects the experience of the person, and forcing people to volunteer is pretty much a contradiction in terms,' he said. Barber was concerned community organisations would have to turn away vulnerable people who don't need any more rejection in their lives. With unemployment and Jobseeker numbers projected to rise, it was not the time to add more punishments for beneficiaries, he said. Money management risks people struggling to pay for essentials Ringfencing a portion of someone's benefit for specific spending risked them falling deeper into financial hardship, said Pakuranga and Howick Budgeting Service manager Megan Dangen. It could mean people struggle with other important costs like rent and loans, she said. 'We find with a lot of our clients, that rent is a major contributor to their weekly financial situation,' she said. 'It could cause a lot of stress in the household if they just can't make ends meet… we also have a lot of clients, I would say 90 percent of our clients, that are in huge amounts of debt.' Official statistics from the Ministry of Social Development showed the average beneficiary spent more than 53 percent of their income on housing costs. Many people were not financially literate and would struggle to manage the restriction on their benefit, said Dangen. Upston said 98 percent of beneficiaries were complying with their obligations, so they would not be subject to the sanctions.
RNZ News
21-05-2025
- Business
- RNZ News
FMA staff given weekly survey asking how they spend each day
Staff at the Financial Markets Authority have been told to complete a weekly survey detailing how they spend each workday, tasks down to the half hour, names and durations of meetings, and whether their workload is manageable. The FMA said it's designed to help them monitor and improve efficiency, but it's raised some eyebrows. Lauren Crimp has more. To embed this content on your own webpage, cut and paste the following: See terms of use.
Otago Daily Times
27-04-2025
- Politics
- Otago Daily Times
MSD workload behind partial scrap of govt work programme: documents
By Lauren Crimp of RNZ The government has scrapped part of a work programme designed to prevent people ending up in emergency housing because the social development ministry cannot cope with the workload, official documents show. A December MSD report to Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka said that was partly because it was too busy with work related to changes to the Jobseeker benefit. But Potaka said while he agreed to end the first phase of the "early interventions" work to stop people needing emergency housing, the second phase would still go ahead, and he was due to receive advice on that "shortly". The report showed phase one involved looking at what could be improved within the MSD system to help people struggling to get into, or remain in, a stable home. Officials said they had started the work, but were too stretched to carry on. "We do not recommend progressing further with phase one work at this time due to insufficient frontline capacity and wider organisational pressures," the report said. "MSD's frontline capacity is currently oversubscribed, and there are wider organisational pressures because of the focus on implementing initiatives to support other government targets, including the Jobseeker target." The government's plan to slash the number of people on the Jobseeker benefit includes MSD staff offering phone-based case management to 10,000 people and creating 'Individual Job Plans' for more than 70,000 people. To do that, MSD had to drop the emergency housing early interventions work, the report said. "If phase one were to continue, because it would require resources from across the organisation, there would need to be a trade-off against other MSD work programme priorities, including supporting the Jobseeker target." MSD had made some headway on phase one, including gathering feedback from community housing providers and organisations supporting homeless people. One of the themes that emerged was that a person's need for emergency housing was more likely caused by "systemic failures" - for example, poor communication between agencies like MSD, Health and Corrections - rather than the person themselves. The report pointed to a dramatic decrease in the number of people in emergency housing, and said MSD had made a range of changes to help people into suitable homes. That included tightening the criteria for emergency housing eligibility. But MSD needed more time for those changes to bed in to see what impact they had, it said. "We will be better placed to fully understand potential need and whether any new processes or changes are required, if more time is given to understand how the changes are interacting with each other and once planned evaluations have taken place." Phase two work did not depend on phase one being completed, Potaka said. "I did not agree to stop work on early interventions but rather chose not to further progress phase one of the workstream, which was focused only on MSD interventions within the current system," he said. "The Ministry of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) is due to provide advice to me shortly on phase two of the work, which is expected to take a more holistic approach to reduce the likelihood of people requiring emergency housing (EH) support." It is not clear what that holistic approach is. Potaka's office said he would receive information on phase two in late April, and further details would be available "once decisions around phase two have been made".
