By Phoebe Eden-Mann, National Policy Analyst, CCS Disability Action
Published 13 October 2026
Updated 14 October 2026
In May, I lodged CCS Disability Action's submission backing a petition that asks Parliament to stop making people with lifelong disabilities repeatedly prove their disability. Byron Donaldson gathered 3,581 signatures for it. Right now, people on the Supported Living Payment have to complete a review of circumstances at least every 52 weeks and renew their medical certificate every two years. That applies even when their conditions will never change (CCS Disability Action).
Act's new fiscal plan goes the other way. It would take $653 million out of disability-related benefits over four years. The savings would come from "independent medical certification against clear criteria" and a phased reassessment of everyone already receiving support. Under Act's June welfare policy, that certification would be done by doctors approved by the Ministry of Social Development (MSD), not a person's own GP.
The checks already exist
Act’s June policy says long-term benefit decisions should be made against objective criteria rather than left to discretion. But the Supported Living Payment already has strict criteria. You have to be unable to work for at least two years, or for good. Since March, everyone on it has to confirm their circumstances every year, and Work and Income can ask for updated medical information every two years, even when a condition is permanent. Getting onto the Supported Living Payment is hard too. We regularly connect with people who meet the criteria for it but remain on Jobseeker Support – Health Condition or Disability.
Each check costs the person going through it. One in five disabled adults can't afford to see a GP when they need to (Ministry of Health). Miss a renewal or an appointment and it's recorded as an obligation failure. A second failure can halve your payment, and a third can cancel it. The Government has just doubled how long those failures stay on your record, from 12 months to 24.
More assessment doesn't make the system more careful. It gives people more ways to lose support they're entitled to, and creates more stress and anxiety for already vulnerable people.
Who loses the $653 million?
Act says people with genuine, enduring conditions will keep their long-term support, and a person's own GP or specialist can still send in their history. Those are fair commitments, and we'd hold any government to them.
But $653 million is what the plan expects people to stop receiving. If only ineligible people lose out, hundreds of millions of dollars must be going to the wrong people right now. Act hasn't shown that. Its leader has said GPs are under pressure to sign people off as unable to work. That's a claim about doctors. It isn't evidence about how many people are wrongly on a benefit.
Either the cut lands on people who need the support, or the savings never arrive. A fiscal plan that counts on the money is betting on the first.
We set out our concerns about designated doctors in June. They don't know the person's history. They're contracted and paid by MSD. When the agency which pays the doctor is expected to find $653 million, it's hard to call that an independent opinion.
Work isn't out there
"Welfare should unlock potential, not trap it," Act's policy says. Many disabled people want to work, and we'd like far more of them in jobs.
But in the June 2026 quarter, 36.4% of working-age disabled people had a job, compared with 78.4% of non-disabled people (Whaikaha). That gap is about workplaces and employers. A stricter medical test doesn't touch it. It only changes who goes without an income while the gap stays where it is.
Support was only ever a contribution
Disability support has never covered the real cost of being disabled. The Disability Allowance tops out at $82.85 a week. The Child Disability Allowance is $62.43 (Work and Income). Research using Household Economic Survey data has put a number on the gap. Families with children and a disabled household member would need $8,400 to $24,000 more a year to bring their hardship down to the level of other families.
You can see the shortfall in the child poverty figures. In the year to June 2025, 26.9% of disabled children lived in material hardship, more than double the rate for non-disabled children (Stats NZ).
One change after another
This plan wouldn't land on its own. In the past year, disabled people have faced tighter Jobseeker rules for 18 and 19-year-olds, a higher bar for some homeowners to get the Accommodation Supplement, and longer penalties for missed appointments. Each change is assessed by itself. Nobody has measured what they add up to for the same households.
What we're asking for
Act has said it will push for its welfare changes in coalition talks after the election. So this is a question for every party in those talks.
Drop the savings target. Before agreeing to any new assessment regime, model the combined effect of this year's welfare changes on disabled people, and carry out a disability rights impact assessment. We've already asked Parliament for both. End yearly reviews for people with lifelong conditions, as Byron's petition asks. And design any assessment with disabled people and whānau, not for them.
The $653 million doesn't vanish when it leaves the benefit system. Disabled people and their families pay it instead.