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You would think that the government’s plan to throw money at everything that moves would be a sure-fire way to stay popular right up till the election. After all, no one is going to say no to free money or begrudge the newly unemployed being given financial assistance, right?
Wrong.
Just like in the political novel Animal Farm, the government is treating some unemployed better than others – and the plebs aren’t happy about it. They have ignored the fact that the higher payment is only for 12 weeks and is in response to a crisis. Instead, they have seized upon it as a way to try to leverage an increase across the board for all unemployed.
The politics of envy is very much in play here with opponents dubbing it “middle-class welfare”.
The Government is promising to pay workers who lose their jobs due to the coronavirus crisis more than double the unemployment benefit, in a newly announced $1.2 billion scheme.
The weekly “income relief” payments, set at $490 a week for full-time workers and $250 a week for part-time workers, will be given to workers instead of the unemployment benefit, if they lost their job due to Covid-19 after March 1.
Finance Minister Grant Robertson, announcing the scheme on Monday, said the payments were needed to help workers during a “1-in-100” year recession.
“People who have been in work have suffered a very sharp income drop, and that obviously that’s very unexpected because of Covid-19 … It’s a recognition that we need to cushion the blow for people,” he said.
[…] The payment will be available to people who lost their job after March 1, and will be available until November. After 12-weeks, any unemployed workers will have to take the jobseeker benefit.
[…] Asked whether the payments amounted to welfare for the middle class, Robertson said the payments would act as a “cushion” for people who have sharply and unexpectedly lost income in a crisis that “came from no-where”.
[…] Social Development Minister Carmel Sepuloni said a “new cohort” of unemployed may have high-living costs compared to previous earnings, and may not find work as quickly as they would during normal times.
The payment would provide “breathing space” for these people, she said, and the scheme resembled similar income relief schemes used after the Christchurch Earthquake and the Global Financial Crisis.
stuff.co.nz/national/health/coronavirus/121614298/coronavirus-weekly-490-payments-for-unemployed-workers-in-12b-government-relief-scheme
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