“The latest step in National’s ongoing war on the poor is both incoherent and racist,” says Auckland Action Against Poverty spokesperson Sue Bradford.

It doesn’t matter how many people take selfies of themselves with a cool slogan. Nothing will change until those in power take poverty seriously.

"We need a welfare system that works, decent job creation and a government commitment to immediately address the housing crisis.

“Every day we work with people whose lives are disrupted and destroyed by benefits which are too low, a toxic Work & Income culture, and an ever deepening homelessness crisis.

“Now is the time for National to wake up and realise that there are far more productive and compassionate ways of dealing with unemployment and poverty than its current toxic mixture of disentitlement and punishment.

 “Work and Income practice is regularly unlawful”, says Auckland Action Against Poverty spokesperson Alastair Russell.

Rising numbers of assaults on Work & Income staff are proof that the Government’s approach to welfare is fatally flawed.

“The promise of $25 a week extra for beneficiaries with children sounds good, but is too little, too late, and in many cases meaningless,” says Sue Bradford, a spokesperson for Auckland Action Against Poverty.

“Despite New Zealand’s income inequality being amongst the highest in the developed world, the National Government seems determined to persist with policies which deliberately worsen life for those who already have least,” says AAAP spokesperson Sue Bradford.

While MSD may say that it doesn’t sanction people over refusing to take casual, insecure work, our group is aware that Work & Income offices often interpret policy in ways that aren’t consistent with either common sense or national policy guidelines.