Welfare and Employment

• Assess those who have been unemployed for a year or more for work readiness. If they are not work-ready then they will be referred to training and other services (e.g. health) that will help them to be. If they are work-ready they will undertake part-time work on a community project or for a voluntary agency of their own choosing, or they will be placed in wage-subsidised employment, where they will receive in-work training. Priority for wage-subsidised places will be given to the older unemployed and those with disabilities.
• Require all young people under 25 who are not at school to either be 'earning or learning' (i.e. in some form of education/training or work).
• Pay premiums to not-for-profit agencies who find sustained employment for the unemployed, with higher rates available for placing clients facing greater barriers to employment.
• Ensure that sickness and invalids beneficiaries seek treatment for their incapacity where this is appropriate as a condition of their benefit, and make funding available to provide treatment where it is likely to hasten their return to work.
• Focus on what work sickness and invalids can do, rather than what they can't do.
• Ensure that those sickness and invalids benefits suffering from psychological conditions are assessed by a designated specialist in that field
• Closely monitor the effectiveness of enhanced case management approach currently applied to domestic purposes recipients, to ensure that they move into appropriate employment as their children get older.
• Establish regional employment initiatives that arrive at local solutions to the specific causes of unemployment in communities, with a clear focus on getting people into jobs.
• Reduce caseloads for Work and Income case managers to enable them to actively assist the jobless into work
• Ensure that jobseekers have access to vacancies in other regions, and increase relocation grants for those who have to move to take up employment
• Simplify the benefit system to ensure that people get their correct entitlements without getting bogged down in red tape
• Ensure that child support payments are made directly to DPB recipients, and that their benefit is reduced by the appropriate amount, to attach greater significance to liable parent contributions.
• Allow the state to apply for child support if the sole parent on the DPB refuses.
• Crack down on the number of teenagers claiming the Independent Youth Benefit, by requiring Work and Income to undertake a thorough investigation of 'both sides of the story' before accepting an application
• Introduce legislation that requires the government to set, monitor and evaluate its social policy goals annually, and report to Parliament to ensure that spending is effectively targeted
• Increase funding for adult literacy programmes, and ensure that every community education centre runs such programmes
• Fund training programmes that are specifically targeted at up-skilling older New Zealanders who find themselves out of work.
• Support a campaign aimed at employers to break-down any negative perceptions of older workers, migrants and those with disabilities.
• Increase workforce skills by lifting the number of modern apprenticeships to at least 10,000, as well as increasing places with other Industry Training Organisations.
• Prioritise funding for those vocational courses that develop skills and provide qualifications in fields facing shortages, resulting in lower fees for trainees.
• Establish a specific employment placement service for refugees.
• Review the operations of NZQA to ensure that the process of formally recognising migrants' skills is effective and efficient.
• Ensure that advice and information is available to businesses to support them in hiring migrants to fill skill shortages, and support migrants with workshops and training to learn about the Kiwi work environment.
• Develop a global online service that matches potential skilled migrants with job opportunities in New Zealand to help fill critical skill shortages, and develop regional immigration programmes allowing regions to meet skill needs where positions cannot be filled within New Zealand.
• Take a proactive approach to skills shortages through promotional events in overseas target markets with high proportions of skilled people

		Return to Policies Index

Home | News | Successes | The Team | Policies | Get Involved

United Future Contacts: 0800 UFNZHQ
Parliamentary: Bowen House, Lambton Quay, Wellington E-mail: Ph: 04 471 9410