From 1 October 1998, the Unemployment Benefit in New Zealand will be called the "Community Wage". (See media release and background information here or here.) The new scheme, which follows from the initiatives of the NZ First Employment Minister, Peter McCardle, signals two changes to social welfare policy:

• Community Wage recipients stand to lose their benefit if they refuse to undertake up to three days per week of "training" or "community work".
• Other benefit categories - in particular the Sickness Benefit, Invalids Benefit, and Domestic Purposes Benefit will be integrated into the Community Wage framework.

Please send contributions to Ian Ritchie, coordinator of UBINZ.

  David Tolich: Community Work Programme - Transition to What?,
    published NZ Herald, 29 September 1998.

  Legal resource handbook for the development of survival guides to the
  "work for the dole" schemes, [MS WORD 97 document], August 1998
    - UUI Action (Nelson)    { WORD 6 version }

  The Community Work and Community Wage Scheme, [MS WORD], August 1998,
    - memorandum from Caritas Aotearoa NZ to Catholic Parishes and Schools.

  Universal Income Trust (Nelson) on the Community Wage (8 August 1998)

  Peter McCardle on the Community Wage (21 July 1998)
    - from the NZ Herald, headline: "Working for the dole can only benefit jobless".

  Keith Rankin on the Community Wage
    - from The Jobs Letter, (no. 82; 17 July 1998), with comment by Paul Callister.

  Communities with a Conscience
    - Opposition to Workfare (Community Wage), from Katherine Peet, 13 July.

  Backch@t discussion; incl. Gareth Morgan and Peter McCardle, 28 June 1998;
     plus annotated comments (so far) by Ian Ritchie and Keith Rankin.

  Taxing the Community Wage; discussion initiated by Ian Ritchie, 15 June 1998.

  Sue Bradford: "Common Misconceptions about the Community Wage",
         published Greenweb, June 1998;
    plus annotated comments.

  Keith Rankin: "Subversive Compliance", published Greenweb, May 1998.

  Concerned Citizens Coalition; Work for the Dole;
    article in "Fair Deal" Newsletter, May 1998.

International Labour Organisation (ILO) facsimile on workfare in Chile and Germany.

Joint Presbyterian-Methodist Public Questions Committee, topical issues.

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