Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Ricardo Menéndez March: Green Party Social Development Spokesperson on the Ministry of Social Development's incorrect benefit processing

Transcript

Ricardo Menéndez March: Green Party Social Development Spokesperson on the Ministry of Social Development's incorrect benefit processing · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Nearly one in four beneficiaries are being paid incorrectly. This
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: according to an annual report from the Ministry for Social Development.
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: It found only seventy seven point six percent of clients
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: had their entitlement correctly assessed in twenty three twenty four.
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: That is worse than the previous year's result, which was
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: eighty two point seven percent. Riccardo me and INA's march
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: is the Green Party Social Development spokesperson needs with us
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: this morning, Riccardo more than a good morning. Well, this
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: is obviously not good and the worst part of this
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: is that if you're a beneficiary and you get overpaid,
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: then you have a debt that you have to pay back.
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's right. And so what often happens is that
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: you could be overpaid by say it could be you know,
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: you know, fifteen dollars each week, but that accumulates and
• 0:43
  Speaker 2: if at MSCY picks that up way letter than the line,
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: you could end up then slap with a you know,
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: thousands of dollars worth of debt from overpayments for something
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: that wasn't really your fault. EMMSDY couldn't even tell us
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: that they would guarantee that if it was their fault.
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: They would not then slap someone with a massive death
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: later than the line. That means that pushes people further
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: down the poverty line and in a hardship as they
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: have to repay it.
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: The fault thing is crucial because it, as you say,
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: will determine who might be responsible. But isn't this just
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: a too hard basket thing because you've got somebody who's
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: working irregular hours, thereby changing what their entitlement to the
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: benefit might be. And every week you've got to basically
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: update MSD with how many hours you've worked, otherwise you'll
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: be overpaid.
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: And part of the problem is particularly for people who
• 1:33
  Speaker 2: are in casual work or moving in and out of work,
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: is that we have an updated and haven't improved the
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: system that a lot of people, for example, move from
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: being on a benefit into part time work. And because
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: of the way that your benefit effectively obeys, yes, you
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: do have that moment in which it's really difficult for
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: a beneficiary to be adjusting those things. Equally, it's difficult
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: for the work and competitions as well.
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: It's so the whole thing sounds so inefficient. You have
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: to pick up the phone and ring them and tell them,
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: what your ows are that week? What is your solution?
• 2:06
  Speaker 2: So there's two things here. If you lifted benefits above
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: the poverty line and allow people to live with dignity
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: work and income, case managers actually wouldn't have to spend
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: so much time delivering things like hardship and emergency grants
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: that could be focusing on the basics like getting benefit
• 2:22
  Speaker 2: entitlements rights. But the other thing is then.
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: You do also make work look less attractive.
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: You know what I mean, Well, there's no actually, there's
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: no evidence of spaces for that. If anything, Actually, when
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: you have people living way below the poverty line, you
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: make it harder for them to find work. That's been
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: marrid and researched across many countries where they have similar
• 2:40
  Speaker 2: welfare systems. The other part is that we need to
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: make our abatement rates better. So this is how much
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: or you lose your benefit when you enter work. If
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: we make that a lot more stable, it means you
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: wouldn't have a super complicated welfare system that even case
• 2:54
  Speaker 2: managers that work and then come struggle to understand.
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: Rakarda what about an app? I mean, why have these
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: bureaucraits got a simple app that you can log in
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: and you can punch and I've done twenty seven hours
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: this week. Last week I did twenty six. You know,
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: why can't we make this simple?
• 3:10
  Speaker 2: Well, part of the issue is that successive governments have
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: tried to make the IT systems better, but that requires
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: an upfront investment, and right now we've got a government
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: that actually is refusing to put enough money to update
• 3:23
  Speaker 2: the IT systems from work and income that are frankly
• 3:26
  Speaker 2: decades and decades old. All right, well, what you're transported
• 3:29
  Speaker 2: to the eighties or well.
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: I mean obviously the last government had the same approach,
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: otherwise we wouldn't still be living in the eighties. Ricardo,
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: thank you very much for being on the show. I
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: appreciate Riccarvman in India's March talking there about nearly one
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: in four beneficiaries being paid incorrectly.
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: For more from early edition with Ryan Bridge. Listen live
• 3:46
  Speaker 2: to News Talks it'd be from five am weekdays, or
• 3:49
  Speaker 2: follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.