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Speaker 1: Afternoon. The government is getting tougher on beneficiaries. It's been

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Speaker 1: announced that job seekers will have to reapply for the

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Speaker 1: benefit every six months. A new traffic light system will

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Speaker 1: be used to show whether a beneficiary is complying with

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Speaker 1: all the rules, and there will also be new sanctions,

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Speaker 1: including money management, where half a person's benefit goes onto

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Speaker 1: an electronic payment card that can only be used on

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Speaker 1: essential items. Louise Upston is the Minister for Social Development

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Speaker 1: and Employment highluiz Hi Heather, what's the thinking behind six

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Speaker 1: months reapplication at six months rather than a year?

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Speaker 2: What? We want to make sure that we're getting more

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Speaker 2: people into work and means a far more active system.

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Speaker 2: And so if they don't need to be on a benefit,

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Speaker 2: noar longer they shouldn't, so it's shortening the reapplication date

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Speaker 2: to six months.

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Speaker 1: Are there people who are on a benefit who don't

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Speaker 1: need to be on it?

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Speaker 2: Yes? There are. What we know from the last time

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Speaker 2: we reduced it to six months as there was a

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Speaker 2: significant number of people who didn't reapply for a variety

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Speaker 2: of reasons. Some of them may well have found a job,

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Speaker 2: which is great.

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Speaker 1: So is it possible that there were some people who

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Speaker 1: were running both a job and the benefit at the

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Speaker 1: same time.

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Speaker 2: Possible. Look, at the end of the day, we have

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Speaker 2: announced a number of measures today because we want to

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Speaker 2: see more people in work. We want to break the

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Speaker 2: cycles of welfare tendency that we've seen balloon under the

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Speaker 2: previous government. So these are some simple practical measures that

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Speaker 2: help help more people into work.

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Speaker 1: Okay, so what will they do, Like, what is going

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Speaker 1: to be the thing that lands them on that money

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Speaker 1: management card?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, So the traffic light system green, you're complying, Orange,

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Speaker 2: you've got a warning red, there's a finnction. So at

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Speaker 2: the moment, the sanctions are either a fifty percent reduction

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Speaker 2: in the benefit or a cancelation completely. We want to

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Speaker 2: introduce for parents in particular, the maximum reduction is fifty percent,

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Speaker 2: but instead of going to that straight away, we could

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Speaker 2: then use a non financial measure like money management, so

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Speaker 2: they still get the same amount of money, but less

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Speaker 2: choice over how they use.

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Speaker 1: It, right, and then they're able to still provide the

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Speaker 1: basics for their kids. That's the thinking, right absolutely, Okay.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, because people have expressed concern about that, so we've

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Speaker 2: decided to bring in this additional measure, which will mean

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Speaker 2: you know, we want those on benefit to comply with

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Speaker 2: their obligations first and foremost that's their responsibility. But will

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Speaker 2: mean that there's a step before the reduction to fifty

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Speaker 2: percent is a maximum.

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Speaker 1: What are they able to spend that money on that's

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Speaker 1: on the card.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, so the payment card is use at the moment

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Speaker 2: with young parents and those on the youth payment. It's

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Speaker 2: basically set up with restriction on what you can spend

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Speaker 2: it on. So obviously you can't go to the supermarket

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Speaker 2: and buy alcohol and cigarette. There are rules set around it.

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Speaker 2: When a person would be going on to money management

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Speaker 2: that's done well for beneficiary and.

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Speaker 1: MSD, Well can they spend it on, Well, they can.

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Speaker 2: Still spend it on cloaths, on petrol, on grocery items,

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Speaker 2: but there will be restrictions so you know, people can't

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Speaker 2: buy cigarettes for example, and they can't buy alcohol. But

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Speaker 2: again we want people to comply and so that will

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Speaker 2: be lifted after a month if somebody then complies with

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Speaker 2: their obligations to be looking for a job.

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Speaker 1: Now you also are making it mandatory for all beneficiaries

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Speaker 1: with work obligations to have a job seeker profile before

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Speaker 1: they get the benefit. What is that.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. So basically we want to ensure that MSD are

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Speaker 2: having early work conversations with those going on to the

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Speaker 2: jobs that can benefit. So before signing on to the benefit,

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Speaker 2: a person will have to complete a profile that this

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Speaker 2: is their work experience, these are their qualifications, these are

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Speaker 2: the sorts of jobs they're looking for, and this is

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Speaker 2: their drivers driver license DATUS. So it helps MSD work

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Speaker 2: more quickly to help that person find a job, which

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Speaker 2: is exactly what we want to do. You want to

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Speaker 2: cur an ambitious target to reduce the number of people

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Speaker 2: on the jobs you could benefit by fifty thousand. So

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Speaker 2: this is all about how do we help more people

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Speaker 2: get off welfare and into work.

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Speaker 1: All right, Louise listen, thank you very much, really appreciate

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Speaker 1: your time. That's Louise Eupston, the Minister for Social Development

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Speaker 1: and Employment.

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Speaker 2: For more from Heather Duplessy Allen Drive listen live to

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Speaker 2: news Talks.

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