Scout Barbour-Evans has been on the Supported Living Payment for the past nine months. Photo: Supplied
Many people who are receiving the benefit for health reasons are worried about the potential for sanctions, one beneficiary says.
The government's new traffic light system to show beneficiaries whether they are keeping up with their obligations came into effect on 12 August.
Beneficiaries can be subject to sanctions when they do not meet the expectations required of them, such as not attending appointments or not preparing for work. The number of sanctions issued increased 50 percent in the June quarter compared to the same time a year ago.
From next year, the system will be extended.
Scout Barbour-Evans has been on the Supported Living Payment (SLP) for the past nine months. This is available to people whom a doctor has said will be affected for more than two years, or who have a life expectancy of less than two years. It is available to people who cannot regularly work 15 hours or more a week.
Barbour-Evans said there was concern that even people who did not have jobseeking obligations could be punished if they did not meet other requirements.
Barbour-Evans said the Ministry of Social Development (MSD) had threatened to cut off their benefit in 2015 because they missed a seminar and the stress prompted them to develop Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (ME), which had then led on to a Long Covid diagnosis.
"I can pretty confidently say I don't think I would have gotten so sick, and lost so much work capacity, if MSD had allowed me to rest and recover back in 2015, like who knows what could have happened, but I don't think I'd have become chronically ill the first time for sure.
"The system introduced this week has so many policy flaws that I can absolutely see the potential for more cases like mine, more people assigned obligations they literally cannot meet, more people's lives impacted long term."
Barbour-Evans said they were most concerned about chronically ill people who were on the JobSeeker allowance.
"I'm very confident I'm meeting my obligations and my only risk is getting assigned a WINZ (Work and Income) doctor who doesn't believe post-viral illness exists, which, weird and anti-science but OK."
JobSeeker Support Health and Disability is available for people who cannot work or are working fewer hours because of a health condition, injury or disability. This benefit has work obligations unless a doctor has said that someone is not able to work at all, and comes with the potential for a requirement to attend work ability assessments.
Barbour-Evans said it was sometimes hard to shift to the supported living payment because doctors were reluctant to say that someone would not get better within two years, due to the effect that could have on a patient.
Jayne Russell, group general manager of client service delivery at MSD, said the traffic light changes this week did not add any new obligations for people on the benefit.
"Most people who get Supported Living Payment do not have any work-related obligations. People on SLP do not have to look for work.
"They may have obligations to prepare for work - but only if it has been assessed they can do this, and it has been discussed with them. We use information provided by a medical practitioner to inform these decisions. If people who get SLP have a partner, the partner may have obligations to prepare or look for work."
Russell said the obligations for people who were chronically ill would depend on the benefit they were on.
"Supported Living Payment is for eligible people with a long-term, significant health condition or disability who are permanently and severely restricted in their capacity to work.
"For clients getting Jobseeker Support, full time obligations may be deferred to either part-time or work preparation obligations if the client is limited in their capacity to work because of their condition. This is determined on the advice of their doctor or specialist.
"MSD would only initiate an obligation failure if they were satisfied that the client did not have a good and sufficient reason for failing to meet their work or work preparation obligations."
Barbour-Evans said that seemed subjective. "I have periods of time where I have deeper fatigue crashes than one I'm in now, days I'm worse than this and I need to be off the phone as well, not seeing emails or messages and I'm liable to miss something."
One Whangārei couple, who are both disabled and receive benefits alongside the woman's part-time work, said they were worried too.
"We know lots of people with conditions that mean dealing with WINZ at the best of times makes them incredibly nervous or sets off their PTSD or any number of things," the man said. "It's kind of scary. Particularly for people with mental health [problems]."
He said people needed to be empowered to help them into work rather than punished.
They were required to update the ministry about any changes to the woman's income - but even meeting that obligation was not always straightforward.
She said she was recently asked for proof from a doctor that she could only work 20 hours a week.
"I provided that but then a month later they called asking me to attend meetings... they were wanting me to work 40 hours. I said I physically couldn't manage it, which is what my doctor said. It took three different calls.
"Then they called again because I was having trouble uploading my payslips on to their system. I had to wait for another person to call me back to give me an email to email them, then they said they hadn't got them, could I drop them in."
Disability advocate Fiona Green, founder of Disability Hub NZ, said the traffic light system and sanctions ignored the reality of people's lives
"People will still be living in poverty, struggling to make ends meet, regardless of what colour light they're assigned.
"The real issue is that the government needs to seriously address the underlying causes of poverty. We need to invest in accessible education, training, and employment opportunities, and we need to ensure that benefit rates are sufficient to meet basic needs."
Green said there needed to be more flexibility and individualised support within the system. She said the current approach was too rigid and did not account for the unique circumstances and needs of individuals.
