ACT says it'll get tough on addicts who are unemployed and on benefits by sending them to rehab, but one former addict says there aren't enough rehab facilities.
Addiction counsellor Grant Foster knows about substance abuse first-hand.
“Started out with alcohol as a young person progressed into cannabis and eventually got into morphine and narcotics,” Foster said.
Eventually he got help, off the benefit and into work where he's spent the last 20 years helping others.
“The benefit helped me initially, in those days you could stay on it even though you’d cleaned up short time until you'd got stabilised.
ACT wants to force the few thousand job-seekers with substance abuse disorders into rehab.
"They should have an obligation to seek treatment if they're receiving government money and sitting on a benefit," ACT’s social development spokesperson Karen Chhour said.
For those who don't comply, there's the threat of sanctions.
"They're people and we can't forget about them because they're a little number they deserve better," Chhour said.
"There's always consequences in life right and we can't keep living life with no consequences."
The Government says the number of people on a benefit with addiction issues is falling and ACT's policy isn't needed.
"We already have a sanctions regime that mean if people are not engaging with their work obligations that that is available to a frontline worker within Work and Income," Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said.
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