The Methodist Mission

LATEST MEDIA RELEASE

Benefit dependency? What Benefit Dependency?

“...evidence directly contradicts the Welfare Working Group’s claim of high levels of long-term dependency...”

13 January 2011

An independent international comparison undermines recent claims that New Zealand has a long-term 'benefit dependency problem', The Methodist Mission says.

New Zealand has the 11th lowest unemployment rate and the 5th lowest long-term unemployment rate in the OECD, according to a new report by the German conservative think-tank Bertelsmann Stiftung.

"These figures show that unemployed New Zealanders are actually very good at moving out of unemployment," Mission CEO Laura Black says.

"Unemployment, and especially long-term unemployment, can corrode families and individuals, and we as a nation should always be doing more to support unemployed people to achieve their goals.

"But compared with other OECD countries, its clear that there just isn't a 'benefit dependency' problem here.

"This independently-gathered evidence directly contradicts the Welfare Working Group’s claim of high levels of long-term dependency in New Zealand," says Laura Black.

"The Mission calls on the Welfare Working Group to rethink its approach to restructuring the NZ welfare system in the light of this information."

Reference:

Bertelsmann Stiftung, 2010. Sustainable Governance Indicators 2011 (German language only) page 23.

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"In contrast [to Germany] the unemployed are able to relatively quickly integrate into the labour market. In Mexico, South Korea, Iceland, Norway and New Zealand the problem of long-term unemployment is almost negligibly small." [transl.]