"New" policy from Luxon, National

[king1]

As someone with contacts at WINZ I can assure you that there is no longer ANY focus on getting people into work quickly.  Clients aren't even a focus until they have been on job seeker support for 12 plus months.  They are no longer required to actively seek work and have no consequences for failing drug tests, failing to attend courses or interviews or see their case manager.

Anything to actively engage with and in this case reward those on long term support is a good thing.  BTW the sanctions he is talking about are already part of the law - Labour under Sepiloni have simply chosen to ignore what is already legislated

Most of that is contrary to what they state on the website
https://www.workandincome.govt.nz/on-a-b...tions.html

It may be that under Labour they have a bit more discretion to enforce or otherwise, based on individual circumstances.  

Being a government department most of what and how they operate is mandated by NZ law, so they would be in breach of legislation if it was as bad as you suggest...  Maybe there is a covid recovery policy still in play that affects their discretion? who knows...