‘This is going to crush people’ - anti-poverty groups on possible benefit changes

There are fears election policies by National and ACT may increase the financial burden for people already struggling.

Twelve anti-poverty organisations have signed an open letter calling on the incoming government to end sanctions and increase benefits to liveable rates.

Action Station campaigner Max Harris says going back to pinning benefits to inflation rather than average incomes will be detrimental.

“This is going to make life a lot harder - we’re hearing a lot about the squeezed middle in this election, but this is really going to crush people in a cost of living crisis.”

As of June, 351,000 or 11.2% of the working age population receive a benefit. These include the ‘jobseeker’ benefit, sole parent support, or supporting living payment for people with disabilities.

Harris says keeping benefit increases in line with wages means they would go up higher and more quickly, but warns this could be undone by some parties.

“The proposal would mean people on Jobseeker have $50 less per week and $60 less per week for people on disability benefits.”

Speaking to Levi Matautia-Morgan on Pacific Mornings, Harris says politicians are either being naive, or purposely keeping these figures in the dark.

“The politicians that are making these proposals don’t understand the impact of what’s going on, or they couch these proposals in really technical-sounding language to make it sound like something that’s less harsh than what it is.”

The National Party is proposing sanctions and a traffic light system for long-term beneficiaries, and ACT proposes to track spending of sole parents who have more children while on a benefit.

Action Station spokesperson Vanessa Cole says these sanctions aren’t in line with local and international studies.

“Forcing people accessing income support into low-wage work through sanctionscompounds social harm, leads to more hardship and does not work.

“Political parties are choosing to attack people who are just trying their best to look after themselves.”