The government agency that runs Work and Income is planning to cut 22 security guard jobs from offices around the country. Each affected office would go from three guards down to two.

The offices affected are in smaller towns from Northland to the South Island: Dargaville, Flaxmere, Huntly, Johnsonville, Kamo, Kāpiti, Kawakawa, Kawerau, Kerikeri, Morrinsville, Motueka, Mount Maunganui, Ōpōtiki, Paeroa, Richmond, Ruatoria, Te Awamutu, Te Puke, Tokoroa, Tūrangi, Waihi, and Wairoa RNZ.

The Ministry of Social Development (MSD), which runs Work and Income, has told staff the cuts are justified because its offices are now safer. MSD points to $80 million it has spent on security upgrades across its network. The ministry had already cut 20 security guard jobs at other Work and Income offices earlier in the year, in March.

Security guards were placed at Work and Income offices after a tragedy in 2014, when two staff members were killed at a site in Ashburton. After that, the government hired an extra 100 guards for Work and Income centres. In 2016, a judge found MSD had failed to properly stop the public from getting into staff-only areas, following charges brought by WorkSafe, the government agency responsible for workplace safety.

Data released to RNZ under the Official Information Act shows Work and Income staff faced thousands of security incidents over the past five years and went through more than 1700 lockdowns. That data covers the period leading up to the current round of proposed cuts.

The head of the Public Service Association, Fleur Fitzsimons, said the true number of security incidents was much higher than MSD's figures suggested, and argued the cut proposal should be shelved. E tū team leader Cathie Powell said guards were keeping people safe and questioned reducing security when unemployment and the cost of living are rising.

The cuts also come alongside a change MSD made to what guards wear. Instead of a formal security uniform, guards now wear a polo shirt and black dress pants. The government announced that change in 2018 to make Work and Income offices feel more welcoming. A wider programme announced the same year, called the Safer MSD Service Centre rollout, brought new security features and front-of-house improvements to all Work and Income centres, starting with Otara.

The broader context here is a ministry caught between two pressures. On one hand, it spent a decade strengthening security after a violent tragedy and a prosecution. On the other, the government is watching every dollar it spends. The $80 million spent on physical upgrades, along with the shift to polo shirts, signals MSD believes cameras, barriers, and redesigned offices can keep people safe without as many guards. But the union's Fitzsimons says the ministry's own data, which already shows thousands of incidents and 1700-plus lockdowns in five years, may understate how much danger staff actually face. If the real number of incidents is much higher than what gets reported, then MSD's claim that its offices are "safe" may be based on incomplete information.

The timing also matters. When unemployment goes up and the cost of living rises, more people visit Work and Income offices, and those people are more likely to be under stress. Cutting guard numbers at small-town offices, where there are few other places to get help, puts more pressure on the remaining staff and guards. All 22 affected sites are in smaller provincial and rural towns, not in big cities where extra security help might be easier to find.

What is not yet clear is whether the new security features installed since 2014 can genuinely replace having a person there. MSD's argument is that spending money on physical upgrades can replace spending on staff. But the judge's 2016 finding was specifically about whether physical barriers were good enough, not about how many guards were on duty. The cuts will test whether the cameras, barriers, and redesigned layouts put in place after Ashburton are now strong enough on their own, or whether guards were doing something that technology simply cannot do.