New Zealand’s growing underclass (Michael Bassett)

Pen laying on paper with classified ads

summarised by The Centrist

Historian Michael Bassett asks which political party will face the issue of our rapidly ballooning underclass? 

Unemployment benefits weren’t designed to be permanent income for anyone except for the severely handicapped. In 1966 there were only 133 people in the whole country receiving an Unemployment Benefit, and 5,000 on Sickness Benefits. 

The Domestic Purposes Benefit (DPB) came into effect in 1974. By the turn of the century, Unemployment Benefits were being paid to 154,000 people, Sickness Benefits to 33,000 people, and Invalids’ Benefits to another 50,000. According to one estimate, about 20% of New Zealanders of working age were now on a Social Welfare benefit of some kind. 

The cost of this for the taxpayer is through the roof, but the calls for yet more assistance are deafening.

All sorts of additional social problems have followed this easy access to money. These include many more gangs, rampant ram raiding, and lower achievement levels at every level of our educational system. 

How to solve all this? 

A Domestic Purposes Benefits (DPB) has to have strict time limits, and no pay increase for additional children. When someone initially registers for a benefit, free contraceptives should be provided. Young people need to be provided discipline, education and job training. It can be financed by the money saved from current lavish welfare top-ups.

Read more over at Bassett, Brash & Hide

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