Submission on Income Insurance Consultation

Summary

1. The Salvation Army Te Ope Whakaora does not support introducing income insurance in the form proposed. The changes proposed represent a major shift in our social security system. Further work is needed to develop the design of an income insurance scheme that would be better aligned to and augment the current overhaul of the welfare system.
2. Women, younger people, people living with disability and Māori and Pasifika workers are bearing the impact of the economic shock of the Covid pandemic on top of enduring inequities in outcomes. The scheme as proposed in the discussion document does attempt to provide as wide a coverage as possible but does not show enough evidence of substantive benefits to improve equity of outcomes relative to the estimated $3.5 billion annual cost of the scheme.
3. The proposed scheme introduces further complexity to the income support system and will result in a two-tiered approach to welfare that is more likely to increase inequalities than reduce them.

 

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