Saturday, July 28, 2012

Getting around the DPB work-test rules

The table below shows that most grants of a DPB are to people transferring within the system or who have been on welfare previously - 71 percent to be precise. I asked the Minister under the Official Information Act:

1/ In 2011 how many second-time or subsequent grants for the DPB were to a caregiver with more than one dependent child; a youngest child under 12 months old and who had been off benefit for between 12 - 48 months? Their answer:
The point of my question? I am trying to ascertain how many people will qualify for a further 5 years of welfare before work-testing because they had a subsequent child off welfare. 437 is a starting figure.

Not included in this figure is for instance someone who left under 12 months ago and returned with a newborn.

The Ministry also qualified my 'off benefit' as 'off DPB-related' which also narrows the field.

The point is, as it stands, as long as a baby isn't added to a benefit the caregiver won't be work-tested until the baby is 5. Some people are clever. They have already forced the Ministry to pay the DPB to both parents if the parents split custody of their children. So there are two benefits to play around with when considering which one to 'add' a subsequent child to.

As in any group of people, there are those who will abide by the rules because they are honest and well-motivated, and that includes people on welfare. But there are others who will play the system for all it's worth. Ironically those are the very people these new rules are supposed to positively influence.






table DP.3: Periods since clients last received any main benefit
Period since client last received any main benefit 2006/2007 2007/2008 2008/2009 2009/2010 2010/2011
Domestic Purposes Benefits granted to working-age clients1
None (clients transferring within the benefit system)2 9,447 10,035 10,654 11,416 11,071
Under 12 months 9,900 10,567 10,876 9,683 9,963
1–2 years 3,289 3,938 4,483 3,656 3,198
2–4 years 3,061 3,393 4,365 4,201 3,307
Had not received a main benefit in the previous 4 years 7,774 8,561 11,433 11,660 10,533
Total granted to working-age clients 33,471 36,494 41,811 40,616 38,072
Domestic Purposes Benefits granted to other clients1
Total granted to other clients 940 1,054 1,100 942 799
Total Domestic Purposes Benefits granted1
Total 34,411 37,548 42,911 41,558 38,871

1 comment:

thor42 said...

I'm convinced that the so-called "welfare reforms" won't make the slightest difference to the benefit numbers.
Those whom they are aimed at are simply far too cunning - they will figure out all kinds of loopholes (as you've already shown).

The only way to *really* get the DPB numbers down is to abolish it. From date "X", no more new people accepted for the benefit. That would guarantee that the numbers drift downward.

This will, of course, never happen. The DPB and Bludging for Families are now as immovable as the Southern Alps.