6. Question No. 6—Social DevelopmentGINNY ANDERSEN (Labour) to the Minister for Social DevelopmentQuestion No. 6—Social Development6. GINNY ANDERSEN (Labour) to the Minister for Social Development: What initiatives has the Ministry of Social Development implemented in support of the Government's response to COVID-19?Hon CARMEL SEPULONI (Minister for Social Development): We acted early in March establishing rapid response teams initially in areas feeling the greatest economic impacts but subsequently across all Ministry of Social Development (MSD) regions. We temporarily removed stand downs to ensure timely access to income support. The Government announced an increase in main benefits of $25 per week as well as a doubling of the winter energy payment in 2020 as part of phase one in our recovery package. MSD has also stood up the wage subsidy scheme with the support of IRD and the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment which has supported over 1.6 million New Zealanders to stay connected with their employers as well as established the COVID leave support and essential workers leave scheme. MSD has gone to great lengths to also adapt its core services to ensure it continues to be responsive to people across all COVID alert levels. They have streamlined benefit application processes so people could apply and be approved online or over the phone and they continue to redeploy people into work where possible. On top of this we announced the $27 million to support our social services. As a Government we have acted quickly to get support to New Zealanders who need it and MSD have been an integral part of that response.Ginny Andersen: What recent initiatives has the Minister announced?Hon CARMEL SEPULONI: Today I announced a suite of initiatives that build on our already existing employment focus and the work of MSD's rapid response teams. I announced the Keep New Zealand Working online recruitment tool an easy and free to use service where employers and employees can connect to recruit and find work. I also announced 35 new employment centres across the country a Keep New Zealand Working fast-tracking service for those on benefit who are able to re-engage quickly with the job market and working in partnership with industry to provide quick upskilling solutions—for example the new free online community health courses with NZQA unit standards. As we continue to respond to the impacts of COVID MSD will continue to be agile in refining its employment-focused offering to ensure those who can are able to work.Ginny Andersen: What employment activity has been happening over recent months?Hon CARMEL SEPULONI: These new initiatives I've just spoken about complement MSD's existing employment services and contribute to the Government's broader employment strategy which I'd like to acknowledge my colleague Minister Jackson for his leadership on. Over alert level 4 MSD's employment focus continued. MSD placed 6648 clients into employment in March and so far this month MSD has placed 2478 people into work. Even during this very restricted period MSD has found innovative ways to continue to support and connect people to opportunities for redeployment and work.