Turner Judy: Financial Review Debate — In Committee 
Turner Judy: Financial Review Debate — In Committee 
[Volume:646;Page:15078] 
JUDY TURNER (Deputy Leader—United Future) 
: 
 As we are reviewing the Ministry of Social Development which is the largest Government department and which deals with the support of people in New Zealand society who are often very vulnerable I think that it is very important—although not intending to be deliberately negative—to focus on those areas where the ministry’s performance can improve. 
I remember that in the last parliamentary term it was United Future that brought to the attention of the House that although the numbers of people on the unemployment benefit were dropping at a very pleasing rate at the same time the numbers of people on sickness and invalids benefits were skyrocketing. When we looked and did a bit of pathology on those figures we discovered that 50 percent of those who had transferred from one benefit to another had done so because of the condition of stress. We expressed at that time our concern about what was happening with those particular benefits. There is still a measurable increase in the numbers of people on sickness and invalids benefits but as our review showed that pace has slowed down considerably. We are very pleased about that and about the initiatives the Government has put in place with wrap-around services to try to help people on sickness and invalids benefits to come to a place of health and return to some form of employment. 
One of the other things I heard other speakers mention is that we uncovered in this review the fact that the amount of debt owed by beneficiaries is considerable. Of that debt $150 million is due to benefit over-payment and the ministry described to us the reasons why the other sizable lump of benefit debt was around the issue of cost of living. Essential goods are currently at the stage where there are questions whether the current core benefit is at a high enough level. It is very interesting to be having this review in an election year because it begs the challenge to all parties in this House to be upfront about what they will do with benefit levels and whether they will embark on and support any review into the future of those levels. 
It would appear that work on a single core benefit is largely complete. Although a less complex benefit system holds some appeal it is unclear what the status of secondary entitlements like the accommodation supplement will be under this single core benefit system. It is also unclear what discretionary funding will be available to Work and Income workers to deal with cases as they come in with the extraordinary needs that crop up from time to time and how if there is any discretionary funding that will be administered and by whom. 
United Future has an additional concern that we would like to challenge the Ministry of Social Development to consider and that is the fact that many of their clients whether Work and Income clients Child Youth and Family Services clients or Housing New Zealand Corporation clients lack advocacy services. This includes disability clients; we include disability clients under the Ministry of Social Development even though they are technically under the Ministry of Health because the Disability Strategy is clear about the fact that those with disabilities in New Zealand need to be included and need to be able to participate. That is a social need not a health need so United Future would love to see disability issues removed from the Ministry of Health and put under the Ministry of Social Development because we believe that that is the appropriate ministry to be managing the overall needs of those in the disability sector. But it is really apparent with many of the clients of this ministry that they lack proper advocacy services as they approach the ministry with their various needs. It is a very daunting thing to approach a department that has the power to determine people’s incomes the power of whether people get to see their children and under what circumstances and the power to determine how much autonomy people should have over their benefit needs. For those in the disability sector there is the experience of knowing that they will have an ongoing reliance on the people they are appealing to for help and they have to be sure that they have the ability and skill set to make an appropriate appeal that will see a result that is fair and equitable. 
United Future would love to have the Government investigate further what could be done to establish an advocacy service for all clients of the Ministry of Social Development because we believe from our experience at an electorate level that that is needed. Many of the people who come into my office with complaints have a very similar status. They are often poorly educated and not often skilled at articulating their needs so they need someone to articulate those needs for them.