Mitchell fisks Hipkins on Welfare

Lindsay Mitchell applies a blowtorch to some nonsense from Chris Hipkins.

• Hipkins: benefit sanctions make people “less likely they are to end up in sustainable long-term employment”
• Mitchell: Under Labour verage estimated future years on a benefit grew from 10.7 to 13.6 years and the number of beneficiaries jumped from 289,788 in Dec 2017 to 378,711 by Dec 2023

• Hipkins: fewer people in emergency housing is because National has “made it harder for them to access” and “made it harder for them to access” and “Where have the families they’ve turfed out gone to?”
• Mitchell: The number of people in emergency housing also fell from in the last two years of the Labour Government (after massive increase) yet no one claimed they were turfing people out

• Hipkins: “the vast majority who go onto a benefit come off a benefit within six months”
• Mitchell: At a given point-in-time (let’s use June 2024) 72 percent of beneficiaries have been dependent for more than a year.

A very good fisking.