Benefits, rights and entitlements....and SLA's

Some time ago, maybe two years or so, I was involved in some discussion groups within ACT when the party was trying to formulate its policy around social contracts, or as they were framed at that time, Service Level Agreements. Nothing much came of it but Rodney Hide did give speeches on them during 2007 and Farrar covered them here.

A constant theme from some in the group centred around rights and the rights taxpayers had viz a viz the tax they had paid. For instance, a lot of Rodney's constituency time was at that time taken up with people, invariably elderly, who could not get the operation they wanted and were literally dying. Another example given was the slow level of service from the police. I mean here were people who had been burgled and it took two days for a police car to turn up. Eventually they were told just to make the complaint at the station.

The anger was twofold. First, this was during time of unprecedented government spending (no need to remind you of that). Second, people affected were invariably the least well off who should have been looked after better: they had paid taxes all their life and were getting nothing in return.

The issue then became whether such citizens had a right to expect better service and if they did how such a right could be enforced against the state. Ideas such as tax credits or instant fines were considered and some ideas were very interesting but nothing much came of it apart from a few speeches which is a shame because the whole concept is very important as explained here.

During the discussion, I queried the use of the word "right" and specifically whether it was overused by the general populace. I contended that undoubtedly it was and in the context of welfare "entitlements" proffered this to the group: the State has rights too. If beneficiaries had rights to their benefit, then the State, as a natural person and acting on behalf of the taxpayers, also had a right to demand that such monies were correctly applied and weren't being wasted.

That should never be forgotten. The State has rights just as much as individuals do. It is the proper function of the State to protect citizens rights and not to usurp them, but similarly it is also the proper function of individuals living in society to protect each others rights (and therefore the State's) by not doing anything that would diminish or limit them. Thus, the State has a right to expect beneficiaries will not claim when they are not entitled to; will not claim when they can work; and will not commit welfare fraud.

Bring back the discussion on SLA's I say.