Single Core Benefit not going to happen anytime soon

Despite pulling all the Work and Income Case Managers throughout the country from their jobs to do several days training on the single core benefit, a benefit that will merge all the main benefits into one, the Government has not made any decisions on whether they are even going to have one, despite saying in 2005 it would save $70m a year.

What's worse, is that Minister Steve Maharey has already spend $100m on something that Cabinet has made no implementation decision on.

What a waste.

Youth unemployment falls - but more stay on benefits for longer

Newstalk ZB has said that a Labour Department survey has found more young people are in work and their average wages are increasing. They conclude that youth unemployment - those aged 18-24 - is falling because in 2002, youth unemployment made up 28 percent of the dole, but now it is only 18 percent. So why dont they survey actual youth unemployment - ie: 16/17 year olds? Because it is rising, that's why. Just like the minimum wage increase increases the income of those on the minimum wage -which are mostly youth.

What the report didn't say is that the dole figures are only a quarter of what they were in 2002 and that some youth in 2002 are no longer classed as youth - but could still be on a benefit. Also, more people are staying on some benefts longer. In 2002 there were 67,144 on the Sickness and Invalids benefit for more than 12 months, the highest ever. That's compared to 67279 for just the Invalids benefit this year - and of course that is the figure for those who have been on the benefit for more than two years.

The Sickness benefit has 20 percent more long termers as well compared with 2002. But get this: more than 5500 on the Sickness and Invalids benefit for more than two years as at February 2007 came off ACC, or are there because of an accident where they didnt get weekly compenstion - and more than 100 were aged 18-24. Perhaps the Labour Department (Party) doesn't want to survey youth Sickness and Invalids benefit figures - some of whom probably should be on the dole or on ACC.

Swedish professor tells us what to do

Swedes. Not just vegetables, but people who live in a country New Zealand authorities look towards in the search for a better society. Last week, visiting Swedish professor, Joakim Palme, told a social policy conference in Wellington that New Zealand needs to get more women, particularly mothers, into the workforce, to pay for our ageing population and the welfare state. Their kids can go to childcare and live there.

So, let's look at Sweden for a moment. Most Swedish mothers went back to work and put their children into day care before children turn two. Sweden provides for paid parental leave for 15 months, massively subsidised - and properly funded- childcare.Sickness and unemployment benefits are paid on an income- related basis, a bit like our ACC here but more generous, and education is a lot better than NCEA.

Average wages raise five percent every year, and along with recent tax cuts Swedish families have more spending power.

Yet Sweden also has higher unemployment at 4.8 percent and 555,000 people on sickness and disability benefits. Actually the real rate of joblessness (including those people on government schemes and those on incapacity benefits) was at least double that figure in 2005, and was as high as 20 percent. It hasn't come down much since.

One one in three children are reportedly psychologically damaged in childcare. You can get financial support for sick children - a child sickness benefit - but about twenty percent claim it under false pretenses while working full time.

I won't dwell too much on how bad Sweden's immigration policies are. Nearly half of Sweden's immigrants aged between 20-24 are unemployed, as are more than 40 percent of Swedish residents born outside the OECD. Two- thirds of Aucklanders are born outside New Zealand. Imagine if 40 percent of working-age Aucklanders who wanted a job were jobless!

Perhaps Palme should sort out his country's problems first, and let our leaders to sort out ours.