9. Question No. 9—Social Development and EmploymentHon LOUISE UPSTON (National—Taupō) to the Minister for Social Development and EmploymentQuestion No. 9—Social Development and Employment9. Hon LOUISE UPSTON (National—Taupō) to the Minister for Social Development and Employment: Does she agree with the Prime Minister that it does matter to us as a Labour Government that we have people in the dignity of work"; if so why are 55 percent more people receiving jobseeker support for longer than one year as at the June 2022 quarter compared to the September 2017 quarter?Hon CARMEL SEPULONI (Minister for Social Development and Employment): I do agree with the Prime Minister. This is why we worked quickly to enact the wage subsidy when hit with a once-in-a-generation pandemic. This quick action protected jobs and stopped New Zealand from reaching the number of unemployed predicted by Treasury. We're making good progress with record numbers of people moving into work over the past 12 months. In the year ending June 2022 30200 people on jobseeker who had been receiving a main benefit for more than a year found work. This included 6600 people who had been receiving support for three years or more. In 2017 these numbers were 14500 and 3960 respectively showing our investment into front-line case management is working. Recently I saw a news article where the Child Poverty Action Group said that our Government was too focused on getting people into work and not on to child poverty reduction. We do not see those things as mutually exclusive. I acknowledge there is more to do but we are certainly on the right track.Hon Louise Upston: Can she explain why when businesses across the country are desperate for staff 50000 more people are on the jobseeker benefit than when you came into office?Hon CARMEL SEPULONI: There are a number of reasons. I will say that originally Treasury had forecast we would have 487000 people on benefit and we certainly didn't come close to that. In particular areas around the country I do note that they have pointed out that there is difficulty in getting the staff they need. I was recently in Queenstown and saw that that was certainly the case for the tourism and hospitality region. There are other contributing factors like for instance in that region the ability to be able to access housing for those that might want to work there and so that is one. There are other reasons as well like the fact that we need to equip people with the right skills and training to be able to take up the employment that is available. I'm very proud of us as a Government because we have made those investments and it will set us in good stead moving forward.Hon Louise Upston: Why are more people on benefit for longer under her watch despite Government spending on employment support doubling since 2017-18?Hon CARMEL SEPULONI: Despite the fact that we made the substantial investments through the wage subsidy there were still a number of people that lost their job at the time. That did result in more people coming on to benefit and then needing to seek out support through the Ministry of Social Development (MSD) and the case managers to be able to be redeployed or to find employment as quickly as possible. We worked with more numbers than we have had for quite a period of time due to the significant event that we've been faced with but I'm very relieved with the fact that 2½ years after the pandemic hit we are currently in a situation where we have 11 percent of our working-age population on benefit when that compares to 13.2 or 13.5 percent 2½ years after the global financial crisis hit.Hon Louise Upston: What factors caused the increase in people on the jobseeker benefit in 2018 and 2019?Hon CARMEL SEPULONI: That's a very good question. What I found when I came into this role as the Minister for Social Development and Employment is that under the previous Government there had been a steady decline—quite a significant decline—in the resource put into work-focused case management through MSD. Hardship had increased but the Government had not funded the work focus required on the front line to be able to support unemployed New Zealanders into employment. We've rectified that. Year on year we have continued to invest in work-focused case management on the front line and we're certainly seeing the results with that.Hon Louise Upston: Does the Minister agree at a time when many vacancies can be filled by on-the-job training too many young New Zealanders are stuck on a benefit and if not why not?Hon CARMEL SEPULONI: This Government has been considerably focused on young people and making sure that we provide them with the opportunities to take up employment. We see that with programmes like Mana in Mahi. We see that with programmes like Flexi-wage. We see that with our significant investment in apprenticeships which has seen significant numbers of people take up apprenticeships. I'm also very heartened to see with the recent unemployment figures and employment figures that we now see Māori unemployment drop to record lows of about 5.5 percent and for Pacific that's 5.4 percent. We are certainly on the right track and focused on doing the mahi.Hon Louise Upston: Why has the number of sanctions applied in the June quarter this year been at 50 percent lower than the same period in 2019 despite the number of job seekers being significantly higher?Hon CARMEL SEPULONI: We take a different approach to the previous Government. We are not punitive for the sake of being punitive. I was very clear from the outset when I took on the role of Minister for Social Development and Employment that culture change would be a priority; that when it comes to applying sanctions they are applied carefully; that my expectation would be that front-line social development staff would actually make honest attempts to contact clients before applying sanctions and traverse the reasons for why they may have done something like missed an appointment because let's keep in mind that that's often why they are applied. I don't apologise for the Ministry of Social Development making and taking a much more careful approach before taking the stick out and applying it to beneficiaries."