It’s as if we’re trying to make them emigrate and we don’t want them to have our grand-kids.

The Government has revealed it expects to take away the benefits of up to 4,700 teenagers without jobs, arguing their parents should look after them. This includes 2,733 who are too sick to work, of whom 69% are living with mental health challenges and some who are being treated for cancer.

This comes as the National-led Coalition is cutting benefits in order to compress Government spending below 30% of GDP and bend public debt down towards 30% of GDP: the 30/30 rule both National and Labour have adhered to for decades, believing it keeps the economy healthy. It comes just after the Reserve Bank started hiking interest rates again, believing it has to make more young people unemployed to reduce inflation caused by a war in the Middle East and the Government itself.

In effect, a generation of school leavers and graduates scarred by Covid and the worst jobs market in history for students, are being punished again by both the fiscal and monetary policies of the Government, which has collectively decided the sacrifices necessary for the greater good of the economy over the long term should be borne by those who were unlucky enough to emerge into the workforce in the last five years and are now unemployed and mentally ill. (See more analysis, charts and detail below, and in the video above.)

Elsewhere in the news around Aotearoa’s political economy of housing, climate and poverty this morning:

* PM Christopher Luxon is defending spending $20,000 on a helicopter ride from Auckland to Hamilton, Stuff reports this morning.

* National Party donor Bayleys made $2.5 million in commissions from the sale of Kāinga Ora homes, Stuff’s Isaac Davison reports this morning.

* Finance Minister Nicola Willis has denied NZ First Leader Winston Peters’ claim he wanted to keep the Reserve Bank’s dual employment and inflation mandate in coalition-forming talks in 2023, The Post-$’s Henry Cooke reports this morning.

* Christchurch’s Emergency Department (ED) is often running at 300% capacity in ‘Code Red’ situations, with patients being treated in corridors, a doctor told Ben Tomsett in his report for NZ Herald; Meanwhile Amber Allott reports for The Press-$ this morning that the Nurses Union has lost an employment court fight to rule Health NZ is operating Christchurch’s hospitals with ‘unsafe staffing levels’.

* Xero reports this morning its June quarter survey of small business customers found their strongest sales growth overall for nearly four years, but that jobs growth was weak, with an uneven recovery evident in strong rural sales and weak hospitality and retail sales. Jobs fell in Auckland, Northland, Bay of Plenty and Wellington, but rose in Canterbury, Xero reported. Meanwhile, Retail NZ’s June quarter survey found a slight improvement in retailers’ confidence.

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How NZ punishes its stressed & jobless youth

Just imagine you are in your late teens and have been unemployed for three years. Your benefit is not enough to live on after paying the rent and buying food and fuel that costs 30-70% more than when you first started looking for work. Perhaps the stress of not having enough money for food and not having a job or much social contact has worsened your mental health. Or you have cancer.

And then the Reserve Bank puts up interest rates in a deliberate move to reduce employment and increase unemployment, in order to reduce inflation you had nothing to do with. It says curing this inflation is the most important thing and the resulting scarring of your employment life is unfortunate.

And to top it off, the Minster of Social Development Louise Upston says she plans to take away your jobless benefit and force your parents to support you again. Even if you can’t work because you are too mentally unwell to work. Or have cancer.

How would you feel?

Would you feel the Government has got your back? Would you feel New Zealand is a great place to start your life and maybe even start a family?

Maybe not.

That’s the situation 4,700 teenagers on the jobless benefit face, including 2,733 who are on the jobseeker support (health condition, injury, or disability DCI) benefit, of whom 1,885 suffer from mental illness. Here’s the exchange in Parliamentary Question time yesterday where Upston was asked by Green MP Ricardo Menéndez March how many were subject to the new policy of removing their benefits.

Ricardo Menéndez March: Does she expect that stripping people of their income support would likely improve or worsen someone’s mental health?

Hon LOUISE UPSTON: Well, we’ve been very clear about our expectations that we want to see 18- or 19-year-olds in education, training, or preparing for work and that in the first instance, support should come from their families.

Ricardo Menéndez March: Is she aware that people who are on jobseeker health condition, injury, or disability are, by definition, unable to work full time or have had to stop working full time because of that very same health condition, injury, or disability, and, if so, why is she making the assumption that they would be able to easily transition into study or employment?

Hon LOUISE UPSTON: Well, the point of this is that 18- or 19-year-olds in some of the circumstances that the member suggests—we believe, on this side of the House, they should be the responsibility of their parents. If somebody is experiencing challenging health conditions, I would totally expect that their families are there to support them.

Ricardo Menéndez March: What would she say to the cancer patients who are receiving jobseeker health and disability who are at risk of losing their benefits due to her reforms?

Hon LOUISE UPSTON: Well, it doesn’t change the fundamental point. We believe that we don’t want 18- or 19-year-olds trapped on welfare, we don’t want them stuck on a benefit for another 20 years of their life; we want them to be supported by their family in the first instances and preferably in education, training, or in work.

Ricardo Menéndez March: So is a cancer patient or someone with a psychiatric or psychological condition deemed to be trapped in welfare—according to her—if they simply need support to get better or access treatment?

Hon LOUISE UPSTON: The policy that the member is referring to is specifically for 18- and 19-year-olds. Absolutely, if somebody is going through cancer treatment, that is an incredibly challenging time, but, actually, we do believe during that period of time, their parents, their families should be there to support them. I’d be really worried if they weren’t. We do have a parental assistance gap test for that very reason, but 18- and 19-year-olds should be supported by their family and when they are well enough, when they have capacity, they should be in training, education, or work.

There are currently 108,600 15-24-year-olds Not in Education, Employment or Training (NEET) in the March quarter, representing 15.9% of the New Zealanders of that age and 14.4% of those available for work. That’s the highest youth unemployment rate since the December quarter of 2009: the depths of the Global Financial Crisis. This is happening at the same time as over 300,000 people with temporary work visas or student visas with work rights are in New Zealand.

The scarring of a generation

It is even worse for students, as Student Job Search CEO Louise Saviker was reported as saying this week:

“This is being driven by quite a significant convergence of issues that we don’t think has been seen in the history of student working over the last, say, 50 years. Certainly in our data.

“The issues are relating to the economic environment, the employment market, the tertiary settings which are becoming more expensive every year for students to study. And then the cost of living for students as well.

“Application rates are definitely the highest we’ve ever seen in Student Job Search’s data records over 40 years.

“What that tells me is that students are really motivated, really committed and exceptionally committed. We hear from students every day who have applied for more than 50, sometimes even a hundred jobs.” Student Job Search CEO Louise Saviker quoted via RNZ

My Top Pick n’ Mix Six

* Investigation by Nicholas Jones for Stuff: Born at 25 weeks and clapped out of hospital 122 days later: Why Ada’s surgeon fears others may die

* Deep-dive by Felix Walton & Ellen O’Dwyer ...