Across ANZ: Proposed New Zealand Welfare Policy Changes Spark Widespread Backlash
On June 28th, 2026, David Seymour, the leader of the Association of Consumers and Taxpayers (ACT) Party, announced a new welfare policy that would “restore fairness, personal responsibility, and the value of work in New Zealand’s benefit system”. The policy sought to decrease dependency on welfare by tightening certification for health-related benefits and restricting how job-seeking individuals can use their benefits. To do this, all health-related benefits must now first be certified by a pool of doctors who have been approved by the Ministry of Social Development. Long-term job-seeking individuals will now receive an electronic benefits card, rather than direct deposits of benefits. This card will not allow purchases of alcohol or tobacco, nor will it allow transactions for gambling or cash withdrawals. These new policy changes aim to decrease the number of people receiving benefits and ensure that those who are recipients are truly in need of the support.
These policy changes have been subject to much criticism, with the most common critiques pointing out the lack of data or evidence used by the ACT Party in making these policy decisions. Kay Brereton, former coordinator of the Benefits Rights Service and now full time Beneficiary Advocate, has referred to ACT’s policy changes as a “moral judgement with no basis and no data”. Brereton explained that those receiving benefits for health issues or who are struggling to find work cannot simply be labeled as freeloaders, but contrarily are real people struggling to get by in life. Many of David Seymour’s statements regarding those currently receiving benefits highlight his and the ACT Party’s disfavorable view of these individuals, which is not a judgement based upon any factual evidence.
“Should Government policy assume that people are forever victims or should it be based on the idea that people can make a difference in their own lives?” - David Seymour, 2023
The assumption that issues impacting people's lives and putting them on benefits is something that will simply subside over time is short sighted and, as many have claimed, highlights ACT’s lack of compassion for those struggling. The new policy not only restricts access to benefits, but also implements added hurdles to receiving them, emphasizing a stigma against those receiving this aid. Only allowing specific appointed doctors to certify disability in order to qualify for benefits is one of the largest hurdles implemented. This is due to many people not being able to access these doctors, as well as the thousands of New Zealanders whose current, trusted doctors are not approved by the government. Finding a new doctor after having a history of care with another is an incredibly time consuming and difficult process that many people will have to undergo following the new welfare policy.
Another concern about the new policy was that certain minority communities, namely the Pasifika people, would struggle with maintaining frequent check-ins in order to retain their benefits. Green Party MP Teanau Tuiono has expressed how his fellow Pasifika community members, especially the elderly, will find difficulty in managing these check-ins with approved doctors. Tuiono also discussed how it can become tedious for any individual to need to repeatedly prove to a doctor that they still qualify for health related benefits.
All of these changes to welfare policy in New Zealand are coming at a time when the number of people on benefits is rising rapidly. Since 2020, both those receiving benefits for mental health related issues and unemployment issues have risen significantly. There are presently around 195,000 New Zealanders receiving welfare benefits, accounting for around 5% of the working population. The Ministry of Health has reported that a staggering 23% of young adults meet the clinical criteria for high level psychological distress, qualifying them for welfare benefits. As the job market continues to worsen in the country, more and more young adults are going on benefits as their mental health declines amidst the seeming impossibility of finding work.
Although there has been significant backlash, the ACT Party has stuck with their rhetoric regarding welfare recipients. ACT Social Development spokesperson Karen Chhour has stated that “The benefit is there to get people back on their feet, not to rely on”, which highlights the stance of the party towards New Zealanders receiving benefits. While job-seeking New Zealanders may only temporarily need support while navigating the difficult job market, many people do have significant health issues that leave them relying on welfare benefits due to an inability to work. These are the individuals who are the most vulnerable in New Zealand society, and yet they are the same people who are impacted most greatly by ACT’s new policies.
As of March, 2026, around 96,000 individuals were receiving health-related benefits. When the new ACT policy takes full effect, all of these people will need to be reassessed by government-appointed doctors in order to determine whether or not they still qualify for these benefits. This is an immense pressure on not only disabled New Zealanders, but on the government as well. The New Zealand government does have specific outlets for getting assessment for health-related benefits, however even before this policy takes place, wait times for being assessed can reach over two weeks. Long wait times for updated benefits approvals could lead to countless disabled New Zealanders having to go without the government assistance they rely on for some time. These issues, as well as many others related to the overall process of receiving benefits, have not been addressed by the ACT Party despite their continued push for this policy change.
