People who lost their jobs when the vaccine mandates came into force hope to return to work soon.
Photo: RNZ / Angus Dreaver
They are a small portion of the workforce - unions estimate about 3 percent - and it is not known how many became beneficiaries.
The government has announced the end of mandates from 5 April for education, police and defence workforces and businesses operating vaccine passes.
Whangārei resident Kim Oakden chose not to be vaccinated due to a heart condition and other health problems.
She lost her job when the vaccine mandates came into force last year and is on a benefit.
"I'm humiliated because I'm on the benefit but I'm actually sick to death of having to defend my statue saying just because I'm not vaccinated doesn't mean I'm an anti-vaxxer."
The in-home healthcare worker wants to return to work as soon as vaccine mandates are lifted.
"I've got a client even now after six months [who] wants me back as soon as the mandates are lifted. My boss wants me back as soon as the mandates are lifted they never wanted me to go, even unvaccinated they wanted me to stay."
Mandates for healthcare workers remain in place after yesterday's announcement, and officials are looking at whether some mandates in the sector could be removed.
Oakden said that could not come soon enough.
"Allow people like me to go back to work. You're letting Covid-positive people go back to work and they're vaccinated, let us unvaccinated go back to work."
It is not known exactly how many people who lost their jobs because of the vaccination mandate ended up on benefits.
But there has been a big jump in beneficiaries getting vaccinated.
In October only one-third were immunised, but said by February, that figure had gone up to 74 percent having had two doses, with 78 percent having had at least one dose, the Ministry of Social Development said.
That leaves 12 percent unvaccinated - double the rate of the general unvaccinated population.
Transport issues, health conditions
Beneficiary advocate Kay Brereton has been working with the vulnerable population for decades and is not surprised.
"I've met a few people who are on the benefit and are not vaccinated, some of them it's a choice but for many of them it's a health choice, 53 percent of people on the benefit have a health condition."
She said many of those on a benefit have no extra money for transport.
"These are people who have real transport issues. There's been a bit of an assumption through some of the pandemic response that people have things like cellphones with credit, cars, the ability to drive to a testing station that kind of thing and the ability to report their results online too," Brereton said.
"Lots of people that I work with just don't have those kinds of facilities in their everyday life."
MSD group general manager of client services Kay Read worked with health officials to address the lagging vaccination rate among beneficiaries last year, which included funding transport to clinics.
"The New Zealanders who we support are in that vulnerable risk group so what we wanted to make sure of was that we were providing them with information and support and then it was their choice what they wanted to do being vaxxed or not we didn't make any judgement about that," she said.
"We wanted to make sure that we were very careful because we pay income support to them we didn't want them to feel that was part of receiving that income support."
Māori beneficiaries have a lower vaccination rate than others, with just 68 percent double dosed, up from a mere 20 percent in October.
The rise was testament to communities taking the lead and offering vaccine clinics at marae and churches, said Dr Colin Tukuitonga, a University of Auckland associate professor of public health and associate dean of the Pacific programme.
"When communities got involved the vaccination rates lifted without a doubt and we really should have anticipated this and organised and arranged for more options from day one.
"The pattern with beneficiaries pretty much reflects what we've seen in the Pasifika communities and Māori communities."
Tukuitonga would like to see the same focus on those communities getting their booster.