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Welfare Working Group

Relevant Recommendations from the Welfare Working Group for Sole Parents, Teen Parents and Youth

Recommendation 8: Conditions for young people receiving assistance
 

1. that all young people 16 and 17 years of age who receive assistance would be required to be fully engaged in either education, training or paid work, or a combination of these;
2. that there be sufficient availability of teen parent units, or other suitable supported education services, to ensure all teenage mothers continue with their education;
3. that young people under 18 years of age who are eligible for assistance:

1. be required to live with a responsible adult or in an adult supervised setting;
2. for 16 and 17 year old sole parents, be required to undertake parenting and budgeting programmes and that their welfare payments be managed as part of this process until these programmes have been completed and participants have demonstrated that they can manage their budget themselves and support their children; and
3. for 16 and 17 year olds who are not sole parents, their welfare payments would be paid to the responsible adult, or agent (such as a community organisation).

Recommendation 9: Signals, expectations and consequences of not meeting obligations

1. The Welfare Working Group recommends that the system of reciprocal obligations be improved to better support a focus on paid work by:

1. making clear information publicly available about the expectations within the welfare system to encourage people to help themselves get into employment, rather than seek welfare assistance;
2. providing clearer information to recipients at all stages of interaction with the system about their job search and other obligations; and
3. providing clearer communication about the consequences if recipients do not meet their obligations.

2. The Welfare Working Group recommends that:

1. recipients who do not meet their obligations would be subject to:

1. graduated reductions in their welfare assistance of:

• 25 per cent of their payment for a first failure;
• 50 per cent of their payment for a second failure;
• 100 per cent of their payment for their third failure; and
• a 13-week stand-down for a fourth or any subsequent failure;

2. a minimum stand-down period of two weeks for each failure, before payment be restored after re-compliance activity has been undertaken;

2. obligations be effectively enforced, with transparent monitoring and reporting of the number and duration of stand-downs and reductions imposed;
3. for recipients with dependent children, additional monitoring be undertaken and there be requirements to ensure the interests of children are safeguarded; and
4. a credible work for welfare scheme be established, in order to test the willingness of a small group of recipients to comply with their job search obligations, such as in situations of six months on welfare for no apparent reason, or earlier if there are successive work test failures. The work for welfare scheme could require a recipient to engage in a compliance activity for a period. Criteria need to be developed to guide the application of this policy.

Recommendation 10: Substance abuse
 

1. either failing or refusing to take an employment related alcohol or drug test be regarded as not complying with the job search obligation, with associated consequences, and that this expectation be clearly communicated;
2. subject to the Government addressing long-standing issues with the availability of drug and alcohol services (which we recommend be addressed as a matter of urgency) a person who fails or is likely to fail a drug or alcohol test due to drug or alcohol dependence be offered the option of voluntarily agreeing to drug and alcohol treatment. Refusal to accept this offer would be a failure to meet job search obligations; and
3. in circumstances where a person’s drug or alcohol dependence is endangering his or her well-being or the well-being of children, management of their welfare payment be put in the hands of a responsible third party, or another form of income management, until the drug or alcohol issue is resolved.

Recommendation 11: Addressing incentives for parents to have additional children while on welfare

1. The Welfare Working Group recommends that ready access to free long-acting reversible contraception be provided for parents who are receiving welfare.
2. The majority of Working Group members recommend that where a parent has an additional (second or any subsequent) child while receiving assistance from the welfare system (except where they are pregnant at the time of coming into the welfare system):

1. expectations to look for work should begin once the youngest child reaches 14 weeks old, in line with current paid parental leave provisions and subject to the availability of affordable childcare and out-of-school care, except where there is already a child under three years of age. In that case the person’s job search obligations would be determined by the elder child’s age; and
2. Government monitors the effect of this policy. If it is not effective, Government should consider whether further financial disincentives are necessary, including that parents not qualify for any additional financial assistance through the welfare system for any additional children born whilst in receipt of welfare, other than access to emergency assistance.

Chapter 7: Promoting the well-being of children

Recommendation 26: Identify the likely impact of welfare reform on the well-being of children

Recommendation 27: Parenting obligations

1. The Welfare Working Group recommends that every recipient receiving a welfare payment who is caring for children be required to meet the following expectations:

1. ensure their children are attending school when they are legally required to;
2. ensure their children participate in approved early childhood education once their child reaches three years of age; and
3. ensure their children complete the 12 free Wellchild/Tamariki Ora health checks, which include completion of the immunisation schedule, unless they make an informed choice not to;

and that failure to meet these expectations after efforts to address reasons for non-compliance would result in the recipient’s income being managed by a third-party or some other means, such as a payment card; and

2. The Welfare Working Group recommends that systems be put in place to measure and monitor the compliance with the expectations set out in a) above.

Recommendation 28: Support for at-risk families

The Welfare Working Group recommends that:

1. all teenage parents under the age of 18 and other parents of at-risk families be required to participate in an approved budgeting and parenting programme and that access be provided to these programmes free of charge;
2. an assessment of risk to the well-being of children should form part of a more systematic assessment of long-term risk of welfare dependency and provide a basis for intervention through participation in intensive parenting support;
3. at-risk families and whânau with complex needs be provided with wrap-around services, preferably by single, integrated providers which address family and whânau needs as a whole. These programmes need to be responsive to Mâori through culturally appropriate, holistic, and whânau-centred solutions. In addition, they need to meet the needs of other parts of the community, such as Pacific, migrant and refugee communities; and
4. at-risk families participating in an intensive early intervention parenting programme have access to quality early childhood education and childcare services from 18 months of age, as currently provided through Family Start.

Recommendation 29: Mandatory reporting of child abuse

The Welfare Working Group strongly supports the Government’s decision to introduce legislation to strengthen obligations to protect children, including a new offence of failing to protect a child, and recommends that the Government enacts the legislation to put this into effect as quickly as possible and then monitor the responsiveness of Child, Youth and Family to notifications, and give consideration to making reporting of child abuse mandatory.
 

Recommendation 30: Income management and budgeting support

The Welfare Working Group recommends that in situations where a parent receiving welfare has shown they have a clear need for budgeting support due to repeated difficulties in managing their budget, such that their child or children’s well-being is put at risk:

1. the person be given access to budgeting support services;
2. Government consider using a third party to manage the person’s income, on the understanding that that this income management would cease once the person has demonstrated their capacity to manage their assistance; and/or
3. this may entail provision of a ‘payment card’ programmed for use only on essential items, to ensure that children’s needs are properly met.

Chapter 8: Implementing work-focused welfare

• improve outcomes for those at risk of long-term welfare dependency and reduce the costs of welfare dependency (as measured by the forward liability);
• focus on reducing the number of recipients of welfare assistance by at least 100,000 by 2021;
• provide effective support to people at risk of long-term welfare dependency through the use of contracted private and not-for-profit providers, including Iwi, Mâori service providers, employers and whânau-centred approaches where these lead to better outcomes; and
• operate respectfully within a clearly defined set of rules about what support welfare recipients and their children can expect to receive and provide access to strong external dispute resolution processes.