As someone who’d be paying rather than receiving these benefits, I’d much rather there be a smooth curve that scales down benefits aligned with income, but anything that creates a sharp distinctive to be productive offends me a lot more than spending a few extra hundred dollars per net tax payer.
And it sucks whenever you approach the edge of the assistance thresholds.
I was always grateful for the assistance, but it was always stressful when you were in the "just over the threshold" area.
And when I was working with people receiving assistance, managing that transition was critical in getting people into work.
I used to phrase it as "yep, you're only going to earn $20 a week more than the dole working fulltime in this job, but in three years, if you stayed on the dole, you'd still only be on the dole. Odds are you'll be doing far better after 3 years of working."
Policy makers are trying to minimise the impact of them, but people not receiving assistance expect those who are to be subject to strong limits.