Work and Income staff were struggling to make contact with people on sickness and invalid's benefits because of high workloads, a select committee was told today.Some staff arrived to queues outside their office doors in the morning.Staff from the office
Work and Income staff were struggling to make contact with people on sickness and invalid's benefits because of high workloads, a select committee was told today.
Some staff arrived to queues outside their office doors in the morning.
Staff from the office of the Controller and Auditor-General appeared before Parliament's social services committee to talk about a report it did into Ministry of Social Development changes to case management of sickness and invalid's beneficiaries.
In late 2007 the ministry put into practice changes to improve how it determined eligibility for sickness and invalid benefits, and to manage cases through regular contact with recipients.
The aim of the changes was to provide appropriate services and support to beneficiaries so they could return to work. By 2010/11, the changes were expected to result in savings of $49 million each year.
In last year's report Auditor-General Phillippa Smith said the ministry had been slow to initiate its intended regular and effective contact with many beneficiaries. It hadn't implemented a client management system and had not secured all the contracts for new health services. There were also problems with how monitoring how effective the changes had been.
Senior performance auditor Bill Gebbie told the committee today there were often positive outcomes when the case management changes, such as using health and disability advisers, were made.
In Dunedin, a deaf woman who also had dental problems, was linked to deaf support agencies and had her teeth repaired after an adviser intervened in her case. She was now able to go to job interviews.
"There is very significant potential there," he said.
As of the end of February there were 58,139 people on the sickness and 84,830 on the invalid's benefits -- a big proportion of the overall total of 336,291 beneficiaries.
Many sickness and invalid's beneficiaries had no contact with the ministry in years.
Labour MP Jacinda Adern asked how Work and Income staff were able to target the groups given their workloads.
Mr Gebbie said it was a problem.
"Certainly from our observations they have an appointment schedule for the coming week which is often almost full."
People came in seeking emergency support and food aid.
"These things take priority... so that the portfolio of sickness and illness beneficiaries its more difficult to go through those sort those and set priorities for them."
Some service centres devised methods of coping, such as blocking off time to focus on the group or having a dedicated staff member look after those people.
"Case managers looking after sickness and illness beneficiaries will take the people coming through the door, they are not just sitting there with that portfolio... there is necessarily a question of priority for them."
Ms Adern wondered if projected savings were possible; "given the current economic environment is it realistic, given those demands, for the ministry to achieve its aim of saving $49 million in financial year 2010-11... Is it a realistic goal?"
Mr Gebbie said there were some things the ministry could do to help and the gains of getting someone off a benefit which they could stay on for decades were considerable.
"The future liability equation does show if you get somebody off and into work early on the payback is very considerable over a long period of time."
Even one person would provide significant savings, he said.
