Up to 200 people face redundancy at the Ministry of Social Development, the ministry responsible for social welfare and student loans, in a “structural change” which was announced this afternoon. The staff affected will include managers, staff at head office and stuff in administrative support roles.
The Public Service Association, which represents public sector workers, is questioning the logic of cutting these stuff in the current economy.

The government needs to explain why a Ministry that supplies essential social services to more than one million New Zealanders is having to cut jobs when demand for those services is rising,
Unemployment has just reached a six year high and the number of people on the dole is expected to more than double to 80,000 by early next year, yet the Ministry that helps unemployed New Zealanders has to cut its staff.

These cuts are part of a four-year review which will see as many as 600 jobs disappear, although “several hundred” new positions created. The Ministry of Social Development hasn’t had an increase in its baseline funding for eight years, and PSA secretary Brenda Pilott is wanting the government to explain why it isn’t providing the funding to meet the increased demand for its services caused by the recession. “More than 288,000 New Zealanders were receiving security benefits at the end of March, 33,000 more than at March last year, yet the Ministry that supplies those benefits is being forced to cut its workforce.”

The Wellington Peoples Center has been quick to criticise the job cuts, “It is inconsistent for the government to be urging private employers to try not to lay off staff, whilst themselves cutting staff numbers in the Ministry that is obviously busier in the recession with unemployment steadily increasing.”