National leader Christopher Luxon has unveiled plans to push unemployed youth into job coaching sessions - or have them face benefit sanctions - if brought to power in next year's general election.
Luxon announced the new welfare policy during his keynote address to party faithful at National's annual party conference, held in Christchurch.
"National thinks that if you’re young and you can work, you should. And if you can’t find a job, you need encouragement to keep taking active steps till you get one," the party leader said.
Luxon added that he had two messages to unemployed young people, currently on benefits, and said National was "on the side" of taxpayers.
"To young people trying to find a job: That is a hard place to be and, if there was a National government, you’d get more support and encouragement from your own job coach," he said.
"To young people who don’t want to work: You might have a free ride under Labour, but under National, it ends."
Under the new policy, National said it would offer a $1000 bonus to a person who is under 25, has been on the benefit for 12 months or longer, and who then starts work and stays off the benefit for the next year.
READ MORE: Luxon slams Government youth benefit numbers as 'not good enough'
Luxon said it would be an incentive for unemployed young people to "successfully [break] their welfare dependency". He added there would be more "intensive support" for jobseekers and a "proper assessment of their barriers".
"Those who blatantly do not follow their agreed plan - meaning they don’t turn up for courses, don’t apply for jobs or don’t engage with their jobs coach - will face sanctions."
As the Government celebrates a scheme that gets people into work, he says there's still too many young people left behind. (Source: 1News)
He claimed data showed the number of young people who’ve been receiving the Jobseeker benefit for over a year had almost doubled since 2017.
He said the existing system's timeframes were "too casual" for youth who were on JobSeeker benefits. Under a National government, young people will only be given three months before being contacted to find a job, Luxon said,
"The very clear expectation is that your responsibility is to find a job and become independent."
He said a National government would contract community providers to provide job coaches - with funding redirected from the Ministry of Social Development (MSD) - as the party wouldn't "keep funding failure by government departments".
Speaking to the media, Luxon said implementing the policy could mean reducing MSD's resourcing: "Whatever it takes to get an outcome, we're going to do it. And if that means we're going to be powering down MSD resources and budgets, and redirecting that very strongly into community organisations - we will do that."
In response to a reporter's question, he said it "may well have to be the case" that the agency lets go of staff, as a result.
Meanwhile, National's employment spokesperson Louise Upston gave an example of a person who used employment to improve their mental health.
"I'll give you an example of a young man that I met three weeks ago. He's never had a job. He suffers from depression and anxiety, and he is finally working part-time. It's actually working part-time [and] going to work regularly, that is building his confidence and growing his mental health," she said.
"We want to support people like that, to give them a chance at part-time work and a pathway off welfare and into work."
Luxon described the policy as a "new approach to getting young people at risk of long-term welfare dependency into work" in his address to attendees.

Throughout his conference speech, the National leader reiterated the party's key attack lines on the Government. He assured conference-goers that the party's caucus was "united, committed and really humming".
READ MORE: Luxon rules out supporting Māori co-governance referendum for now
Luxon reiterated his party's previously-stated position on co-governance.
"A country that says absolutely, explicitly, that there is one standard of democracy, equal voting rights and no co-governance of public services," he said.
"That’s the New Zealand I want to live in."
On the economy, he compared the Government's spending in Budget 2022 to a household budget.
"This year’s Budget included by far the most new spending of any Budget in New Zealand’s history, and it was delivered when the economy was already overheated and inflation was rising," he said. "You couldn’t run a household or business like this, and you shouldn’t run a country like it either."
"If you think of the economy like a car, then the Government and Reserve Bank have been squashed together in the driver’s seat, pushing the accelerator flat to the floor.
"Now, like some terrified passenger realising the car’s going too fast, the bank’s pressing down hard on the brake. The car’s got the wobbles and there’s a very strong likelihood it’s going to crash," Luxon said.
He claimed "every incoming National Government since 1960 has inherited an economic mess from Labour". Throughout his address, he attacked the Government's ability to deliver improved outcomes.
1News senior political reporter Benedict Collins spoke to Q+A from the party's annual conference. (Source: Q and A)
His comments to attendees dovetailed off comments by National's new president Sylvia Wood, who told the conference on Sunday morning that the party needed an "obsessive" focus on the party vote going into next year's general election.
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