Support services say National's new welfare policy is outdated, and will worsen the situation for beneficiaries.
National needs to listen to young people, said Aaron Hendry. Photo:
The party's welfare policy was announced by Christopher Luxon at the annual National Party Conference yesterday, and includes cutting payments for 18- to 24-year-olds on the jobseeker benefit if they do not make sufficient effort to land a job.
Youth homelessness collective, Manaaki Rangatahi, believed the policy would fail the young people it is supposed to help.
Aaron Hendry, a youth worker who also works for Manaaki Rangatahi, said if National's only goal is to get young people into work, it is missing the point.
"One of the challenges these policies have is that historically, they don't address the real reasons why our young people are needing the benefit.
"So, y'know, for our context, we support rangatahi that are experiencing homelessness that come from really complex histories of generational poverty, [they have] mental health problems, addiction, disabilities."
It is vital rangatahi's needs are heard and they are at the centre of the services they receive, Hendry added.
"The idea, the assumption that our young people are lazy and they're floating along on the benefit, well that's just not true.
"I've never met a young person that doesn't have hope, dreams, aspirations for their future. I have met many young people who are disempowered, who've grown up in cycles of poverty and abuse and are dealing with some huge complexities in their lives."
Christopher Luxon. Photo: RNZ / Angus Dreaver
Auckland Action Against Poverty's Brooke Stanley Pao said National's welfare policy showed politicians are not listening to their communities.
Forcing young people into jobs was archaic, and has been proven not to work, she said.
"I think young people are actually tired of the way that we do things... They don't feel connected to capitalism or being forced into a job that's not meaningful for them or the types of work that we consider important.
"Young people are already doing so much in this space and if we just supported them with liveable incomes, they'd be able to do so much more with their own potential."
Beneficiary advocate Tavia Moore said the policies would only worsen the situation.
Moore, from the Beneficiary Advisory Service, said the party needs to talk more with those directly helping beneficiaries.
"[Our clients] are struggling to decide what to cover - whether they cover their rent, their food. Taking more away from them is only going to worsen that situation.
"The idea that people are languishing on the benefit and it's an easy place to be is not what we see for our clients."
She was also concerned by how regressive the policy was and said National has oversimplified the problems people are facing.
It did not appear to accommodate for individual circumstances either, Moore added.
Labour and the Green Party have also heavily criticised National's policy.