Yes, you read that right – in November this year changes will come into effect for the Jobseeker Support Benefit. These changes will mean 18 and 19-year-olds who are currently on the Jobseeker Support Benefit HCID (that means they’re on the benefit because of a health condition, injury or disability) whose parents earn more than $65,000 will no longer be eligible. It’s thought it will affect around 2,700 teenagers – some of whom are unable to work because they’re battling cancer. One mother, whose son received payments several years ago talks to Capsule about the heartbreaking reality of having a sick teenager, who wants nothing more than to be well and out there working and thriving. She fears for the families who will no longer be able to get assistance.
“I thought the year my husband died was – and would always be – the worse year of my life,” says Jennifer. “But then 2022 happened.”
When Jennifer’s husband passed away after suffering a sudden heart attack, it felt like her world was falling apart – but then, two years later she found herself in what she describes as true rock bottom.
“We had lots of different types of insurance, but apparently not enough,” she says. Jennifer works as a nurse, while her husband also worked in the public sector. “Neither of us were highly paid, but together, our income was good for getting by in Auckland. His payout was enough to cover his funeral and to cover bills for a little while. Until his death we were also helping our parents financially.”
But then, Jennifer was alone, servicing the mortgage and raising two kids – a son then aged 16 and an 11-year-old daughter. “Finding care for her while I was working – which I absolutely needed to be doing – was tough, but my son, Matt, truly stepped up,” she says.
Matt was still somehow excelling at school, whilst working two part time jobs.
“I think as much as I tried to shield him from it, he could see that financially it was tough without his dad’s income,” she says. “He started paying for a lot himself – his own clothes, he’d buy extra food, he really helped out. When he left school and started working full-time, he started paying board.”
But then, when Matt was couple of months into full-time work after finishing high school, another tragedy struck the family. Matt got sick – very sick.
“It was a blessing and a curse being a nurse, because I could quite quickly identify that he had CFS/ME (Chronic Fatigue Syndrome/Myalgic Encephalomyelitis)” she says. “He went from the kid who could do everything, to the kid who did not have the energy to get out of bed to have a shower.”
ANZMES defines ME/CFS as incapacitating fatigue, (experienced as profound exhaustion), problems with concentration and short-term memory, non-refreshing sleep and inability to exercise. The fatigue is often accompanied by flu-like symptoms such as pain in the joints and muscles, tender lymph nodes, sore throat, poor temperature control and headache.
Matt was bedridden by the illness. He had left high school with great marks, and intended to work for one year, build up some savings and then go to university. But suddenly, his future looked very uncertain.
Adding to the strain and burden on Jennifer’s family was the fact that getting Matt the medical help he needed, didn’t come cheap – and she was already under financial pressure before he got sick.
“I think any parent would understand,” she says. “When your kid is very sick – you’d do anything, you’d stop at nothing to get them the best care. It was excruciating, because we were only just making ends meet before he got sick.
“When someone is sick there is so much more to it than I think people who haven’t been through it realise. There’s not just medical bills that pile up, there’s so many other costs – heating or cooling bills (having someone home all day who is very sensitive to temperature means we were running our heat pump often), there’s different dietary needs. There’s the unpaid leave you have to take in order to get that person to medical appointments. There’s the petrol and car parking fees at those appointments. There’s the childcare charges you wrack up for having someone else with your other children.”
What did help, was that Matt was eligible for a specific type of Jobseeker benefit – the Jobseeker HCID which is specifically for people who have to temporarily stop work or reduce their hours.
“It was just over $250 a week, but it was a huge help,” says Jennifer. “It didn’t come close to covering his costs, but it helped to keep us afloat.”
Jennifer has asked to stay anonymous in this story as she doesn’t want her son to know just how tough things were in 2022.
“Some weeks, I’d survive the whole week off a packet of rice and a tin of peaches,” she says. “When faced with choices like, should I run the heat pump this week, or should I get enough food to cover my meals as well as the kids’, the choice to go without myself was easy. It was incredibly stressful though, worrying about how we would get by and what might happen if we had an unexpected bill come up. I started worrying that my daughter would need braces – I’d be awake at 3am Googling it and Googling ‘what happens if you don’t get your child braces and they need them’.”
It’s why Jennifer says she burst into tears when she heard the news that the government will end Jobseeker payments to 18 and 19-year-olds whose parents earn more than $65,000 from November 2026. That includes those who are on the Jobseeker HCID (this refers to those who are on the support benefit with a health condition, injury or disability). In October last year it was estimated that around 4,300 young people would become ineligible for support.
Currently the Jobseeker support payment is $276.45 if you live at home or $324.50 if you live independently.
At the end of July, Minister for Social Development Louise Upston said the changes to the Jobseeker support benefit HCID would affect around 2,700 young people. Around 70% of whom have psychiatric or psychological conditions. She said that those on the HCID Jobseeker who are unable to work should be in further education or preparing for work in the future.
During Question Time, MP Ricardo Mendéndez March questioned Louise Upston about what she would say to those 18 and 19-year-olds who are on HCID because they are currently battling cancer (yes, the cuts include teenagers who are going through cancer).
She replied:
“It doesn’t change the fundamental point. We believe that we don’t want 18- or 19-year-olds trapped on welfare, we don’t want them stuck on a benefit for another 20 years of their life; we want them to be supported by their family in the first instances, and preferably in education, training, or in work.”
Seeing Red
When I read that quote to Jennifer, she burst into tears again.
“This is where we’re saving money?” she asks. “From kids who have cancer? It’s cruel.”
When she saw the new requirements to be eligible for the payment – your parents earning under $65,000 – she felt appalled.
“That’s Matt,” she says. “I earned $89,000, so if that was the policy for us in 2022, he wouldn’t have been eligible.”
Jennifer says her heart breaks thinking of all those desperate parents who will be affected by the changes – not to mention the teens themselves.
“We have to, have to get rid of this ‘dole bludger’ rhetoric in New Zealand,” she says. “My kind, bright and hard-working son would love nothing more than to be well enough to work. He comes from a family of hard workers. He has seen the dedication I have put into being a nurse – the hard work and long hours his late father put into his public sector job. We have poured ourselves into our jobs, into helping our communities. We are proud people – I did not want to take money from people, but I wholeheartedly accepted this benefit payment because without it, we might have sunk. People don’t want to be on these benefits. The 18 and 19-year-olds who are on this benefit want to live normal lives but they can’t because of very real illnesses. They don’t need to be cut off a benefit to feel an ‘incentive’ to somehow get themselves well and to rejoin life. The incentive already very much exists, believe me. They’re watching the world continue to go on without them – a world they’re currently unable to partake in. As a mother, that’s heartbreaking to watch.”
Jennifer says this government is out of touch.
“They are most certainly showing their own personal privilege in the way in which they talk about getting support from your parents,” she says. “They obviously cannot fathom a world in which it might not be possible to run to your parents – as an adult – for financial support. For a great many of us, we cannot imagine a world where if we got into financial trouble, lost our jobs, lost our ability to work, that we could turn up on our parents doorstep and have them just look after us. Until my husband died, we were helping both our sets of parents, financially. Oh how I wish I had the funds to have been able to easily look after my son – but I don’t know what I would have done if he hadn’t of been eligible for the Jobseeker. Before my husband died I could never have imagined that this would be our reality – I think most people don’t realise how they are just one or two events away from being in a desperate situation.”
Jennifer says her son’s illness has greatly improved, but he is still recovering. He is no longer on a benefit and has been able to start working on a part-time basis.
“I am so proud of him,” she says. “An illness like CFS/ME is absolutely heartbreaking – it robs you of so much, particularly when you have it at a young age. It has been tough, physically and mentally, but he hasn’t lost his spirit. Despite everything that has happened, he now wants to get into a career helping others – whether that’s social work or in the mental health sector. We’re taking baby steps, but the hope is he will continue to improve and will be able to go on to do tertiary education and fulfil his dreams.”
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