John MacDonald: Beneficiary-bashing. It must be election year

Author: John MacDonald,
Publish Date: Mon, 29 Jun 2026, 12:47pm

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I’ve never been on a sickness benefit. But I imagine that, for anyone who is, the government telling you what you can and can‘t spend your benefit money on, and spying on you to make sure you toe the line would be pretty degrading.

Tell that to the ACT Party, though.

Not only that. In this policy announced yesterday, instead of your own GP signing you off for the sickness benefit, you'd need to see a government-approved doctor.

Which sounds a bit like ACC, doesn’t it?

Last week, when we were talking about ACC, people were telling us about their dealings with ACC’s own doctors and how it felt like their main priority was turning people down.

Which is exactly what it would be like under this system David Seymour wants to introduce for the sickness benefit.

He says a person’s GP or specialist would still be able to provide medical history details, clinical notes and supporting evidence. But it would be doctors employed by the government who would decide whether someone qualifies.

And we know what would happen, don’t we? More and more people would be turned away. We know that, because the only reason David Seymour wants to make these changes, is to get less people on the benefit.

David Seymour says these government-employed doctors would have one job. Getting people back to work. Which sounds all kind and supportive. But I don’t buy that for a minute.

Then there’s this bit where he wants to stop paying the sickness benefit into people’s bank accounts.

Instead, the benefit would go onto a payment card that would track how the money is spent and wouldn’t let people spend it on alcohol, gambling and tobacco, or get cash out.

This would kick-in after someone has been on the benefit for four months.

I’m not sure which of these two ideas is worse.

Getting through the hoops with these government-employed doctors, as I say, sounds like ACC all over again.

But I actually think telling people what they’re allowed to spend the benefit money on and forcing them to use this special card that would be monitored by the government would be nothing short of degrading.

Because, yes, I know there will be people out there on the sickness benefit who are taking the mickey.

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