NZ - Drug testing of beneficiaries set to come into force from July

[poledriver]

NZ - Drug testing of beneficiaries set to come into force from July

Beneficiaries with work expectations will face sanctions if they refuse to apply for drug-tested jobs. Photo / APN

Drug testing of beneficiaries will come into force next year, with penalties for those who fail tests - including having to reimburse the cost of the test and having welfare payments stopped.

Social Development Minister Paula Bennett yesterday announced pre-employment drug testing will take effect from next July and beneficiaries with work expectations will face sanctions if they refuse to apply for drug-tested jobs.

Around 40 per cent of the jobs listed with Work and Income require drug tests and the policy will apply only to those with a work expectation attached to their benefit and only for available work opportunities requiring drug tests.

Currently an unemployment beneficiary can decline to apply for an available drug-tested job, because they won't pass the test, without consequence.

Work and Income has announced it will reimburse employers for test failures but beneficiaries who fail a test will have the cost of the drug test deducted from their benefit.


"Where people fail a drug test or refuse to apply for a drug-tested job, they must agree to stop using drugs or their benefit will be cut by 50 per cent. They will be given 30 days to allow any drugs they have taken to leave their system.

"Where they fail a test or refuse a second time, they will have their benefit suspended until they agree that they will provide a 'clean' drug test within 30 days. If they do not do this their benefit will be cancelled.

"People will be given a warning and reasonable period of time to stop using drugs before having to take another drug test. But further failures will result in benefit reduction and possible cancellation," said Ms Bennett.

She said estimates at the high end put the cost of enforcing the policy at $10 million. "We really think the real cost is around $3 million for those that will be known as dependent, once this testing comes in. The savings are estimated to be around $10.5 million."

The crackdown would involve up to 13,000 beneficiaries a year getting treatment for drug dependency.

Ms Bennett said a Ministry of Health report from 2007/2008 said beneficiaries were three times more likely to be cannabis users. "That would put them at around 20 per cent of beneficiaries, if you went by that number. The UN says that New Zealand and Australia have the highest use of cannabis anywhere in the world," she said.

Up to 41 per cent of all jobs that go through Work and Income's books require a drug test.

Ms Bennett said there was 100 per cent drug testing on anyone working on the Christchurch rebuild.

Labour leader David Shearer said the announcement was a cynical distraction from the expert panels' advice on solutions to child poverty.

"It's hugely cynical that the very date the Children's Commissioner is coming out with a report on children, Paula Bennett has chosen to re-announce this policy. It's moving the debate away from the real issues about poverty and on to something she's already talked about before," said Mr Shearer.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10830145

 

[poledriver]

NZ - Shearer: Drug testing announcement cynical

An announcement about drug testing beneficiaries is a "cynical" distraction from an important expert panels' advice on solutions to child poverty, Labour leader David Shearer says.

The policy to drug test beneficiaries was not new and was a "re-announcement" by Social Development Minister Paula Bennett, he said.

Mr Shearer said the minister was trying to detract from the release of a report into child poverty by an expert panel for the Children's Commissioner today.

"It's hugely cynical that the very date the Children's Commissioner is coming out with a report on children that Paula Bennett has chosen to re-announce this policy.

"It's moving the debate away from the real issues about poverty and onto something she's already talked about before,'' said Mr Shearer.

Mrs Bennett said drug testing of beneficiaries would start in July next year.

She said reports the drug testing policy will cost more than it will save were untrue.


"We think the real cost is around $3 million for those that will be known as dependent, once this testing comes in. The savings are estimated to be around $10.5 million," she said.

Mr Shearer said drug testing was hugely expensive and the money should provide meals in schools instead.

Labour's social welfare spokeswoman Jacinda Ardern said the drug testing policy would not properly tackle the problem.

"The bottom line is we do want to get people into work - and if drug use is an issue, we do want to address this."

She said there was merit to addressing drug use that stands in the way of beneficiaries moving into work but said the policy has some serious question marks over it.

- APNZ

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10830057

 

[paranoid android]

Jesus it's spreading outside the US!

To all the dumb cunts who support this move by politicians to get peoples minds off the real issues as to why people are poor think about this for a minute. Where does the majority of your hard earned tax dollars go in regards to people who do nothing? That's right politicians who encourage the reasons people have to go on welfare in the first place! Not to mention the kickbacks and the corporations who run the government and thus your sorry ass. So before you conservative minded folk all jump up and down bitching about welfare rats engage in some critical thinking first and actually ponder what the real issues behind poverty are. Granted the utterly retarded cunts who fall for this bullshit aren't known for any kind of thinking

Also is it just me or are politicians becoming more and more blatant in attacking the working class? The working class may want to remember that if they don't stick up for welfare recipients one can hardly expect anyone to stick up for them when the government starts attacking the lower classes more and more. It's the fucking worse it's getting in this world and we only have ourselves to blame. If we where not so completely self absorbed and apathetic the bourgeois would not dare try this type of shit but since they know they can get away with it via the divide and conquer method of pitting the working class against each other this type of stuff will only become more and more common.

 

[The Network]

The way to treat a drug addiction isn't to force them into unreasearched drugs that won't show up on a drug test or something like that. I've been addicted to a couple things, neither directly related to drugs. It's damn impossible to get over it without the help of people. The motivation should be more friends and stuff, not "hey if you relapse you have to pay us "

However, most of the time... it's not an addiction and more of a lifestyle. I was just speaking for the portion of people that it is an addiction for.

 

[brighton]

oh shit i live there ohhh noo my benefit .......

 

[poledriver]

lol

 

[paranoid android]

oh shit i live there ohhh noo my benefit .......

Hey look at it this way as long as you don't smoke weed, PCP or take benzos that are not scripted your in the clear. You can do all the meth, opiates, coke and research chems that you want.

 

[pkt]

This sounds like a great plan, im sure this will decrease crime by %60 for sure!!!!

 

[paranoid android]

This sounds like a great plan, im sure this will decrease crime by %60 for sure!!!!

Wait until people start getting their benefits cut off for smoking some fucking weed. Instead of getting money from the government they will have to get it other ways. The other ways for people that live in the hood are drug dealing, robbery and prostitution so I'm sure the crime rate will really go down alot 8) . But of course conservatives despite the chest thumping about lowering crime rates are so full of shit that they need a enema. Their policies (this being just one of them) fill the prison system to even more overcapacity then it already due to putting people behind bars for crimes that should not even be crimes. Also the indirect effect of policies such as cutting off peoples welfare cause more crime as people need to get their money somehow.

I really hope that they don't try to do this shit in Canada. Granted welfare is run by the provinces here so i think it would be up to each province whether to enact a law as insane as this. So if the Canadian government did try this idea that was thought up by rich white men they wouldn't have a hope of implementing it east of Ontario.

 

[poledriver]

NZ - Drug tests ordered for skydivers

The skydiving industry has been ordered to drug test staff, in an urgent move to protect customers.

The Civil Aviation Authority has issued a notice to all tourism operators, instructing employers that drug and alcohol tests need to be conducted before any staff are hired, and after incidents. Regular random tests are now also required. Any failed results have to be reported to the authority.

CAA health and safety manager Ed Randell said recent investigations had indicated "potential for safety concerns" in the adventure aviation industry. The new rules clarified how companies were expected to meet existing health and safety laws, which did not specify drug testing.

New Zealand Skydiving Association president Gareth Jacobs said the industry tended to attract thrill seekers who enjoyed partying as much as they enjoyed extreme sports.

"It takes a certain type of person to be a skydiver. That type of person may also take part in alcohol and drugs."

Jacobs said skydiving was safe in New Zealand but the new rules would weed the "cowboys" out of the industry.

He added most customers assumed drug and alcohol testing was already happening, but it was rare.

Tony Green, who owns major skydiving operations in Taupo and Auckland, said he drug tested staff but the $70 cost per test meant it was unaffordable for smaller businesses.

Former professional skydiver Mike Jones, who left the industry in 2010, said he had been horrified with the lifestyles of "young, bulletproof" staff working in tourist centres.

"I've seen tandem instructors and pilots stumble out of the pub at 4am then turn up for work at 8am the same day," he said.

Jones added it was impossible for customers to know whether staff they would be jumping with were affected by drugs, alcohol or fatigue.

The CAA would audit skydiving operations over the next few months to ensure a testing programme had been set up.

Randell said the Transport Accident Investigation Commission had identified staff involved in the Fox Glacier plane crash and Carterton balloon accident had cannabis traces in their blood.

Two tandem skydiving masters in the 2010 Fox Glacier accident, in which nine poeple died, had cannabis in their systems. A coroner's inquest ran for a week last month but the findings were reserved.

Earlier this year, 11 died when a hot-air balloon in Carterton hit power lines and burst into flames.

- Celeste Gorrell Anstiss

'I thought I was a goner'

A couple of weeks ago Liam Dunne lay in a muddy field with a broken back after a terrifying skydiving mishap.

He thought he was "a goner" as he hit the ground but now says he would not change a thing - even the accident that nearly killed him.

Dunne says skydiving is safe. He says he feels extremely lucky, despite metal screws in his back, hours of gruelling physio and sleep interrupted by pain shooting through his body. "I am taking the positive from it," father-of-two Dunne told the Herald on Sunday.

"I didn't die and I should have died. You just appreciate things a lot more."

Dunne faces about 13 weeks of rehabilitation at the Burwood Spinal Unit in Christchurch before long-term care in his hometown of Taupo.

His parents have flown from Ireland to support him, his wife Sally and their two children. Investigators say it may take two months to complete their report.

- Kirsty Wynn

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10831066