Point of Order: Buzz from the Beehive - 9/5/24

What’s new? A social agency with an emphasis on “investment” instead of “wellbeing” – but (psst!) we have had one of these before

A new government agency will open for business on July 1 – the Social Investment Agency.

As a new standalone central agency effective from 1 July, it will lead the development of social investment across Government, helping ministers understand who they need to invest in, what works for those people and how to measure progress.

But wait.

Hanna Wilberg: Forcing people to repay welfare ‘loans’ traps them in a poverty cycle

The National Party’s pledge to apply sanctions to unemployed people receiving a welfare payment, if they are “persistently” failing to meet the criteria for receiving the benefit, has attracted plenty of comment and criticism.

Less talked about has been the party’s promise to index benefits to inflation to keep pace with the cost of living. This might at least provide some relief to those struggling to make ends meet on welfare, though is not clear how much difference it would make to the current system of indexing benefits to wages.