Borrows Chester: Social Security (Youth Support and Work Focus) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
Borrows Chester: Social Security (Youth Support and Work Focus) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
[Advance Copy - Subject to minor change before inclusion in Bound Volume.] 
Hon CHESTER BORROWS (Associate Minister of Social Development) 
: 
 This Social Security (Youth Support and Work Focus) Amendment Bill is part of a step change in the way we do social welfare in this country. No longer will we just give people a handout and then leave them to fend for themselves as the previous Government did. Instead this Government wants welfare to be an active and focused system—a system that supports people towards making better choices and a system that lifts them out of dependency rather than trapping them in it. New Zealand has one of the most comprehensive welfare systems in the world but in spite of the good intentions of its architects it no longer works in the way that they thought it would. All too often it traps people on a low income into a life of poverty and right now around 330000 working-age people receive benefits—that is about 12 percent of our entire working-age population. Times have been difficult lately but even back in 2007 following years of good economic times we still had 270000 beneficiaries and that was as good as it got. Welfare costs $8 billion a year to the New Zealand taxpayer; the lifetime costs are much much higher; and New Zealand cannot afford to have one in eight working-age people on a benefit or over 220000 children growing up in benefit-dependent homes not to mention the accompanying social costs: poverty crime illness child abuse and neglect underachievement poor health and lost opportunities. 
That is why National campaigned on making some big changes to the way we think about welfare. That is one of the reasons New Zealanders returned a John Key - led Government with one of the largest single-party results in recent history. The changes in this bill will help people get off welfare and into work and that means a better life for New Zealand families and better opportunities for their children. The current system hands out benefits and leaves two-thirds of beneficiaries to their own devices. Most are not expected to work even if work is offered to them. There is little focus on personal responsibility or independence. Our system founded in the 1930s is based on an old-fashioned assumption about who can and cannot earn a living especially when it comes to sole parents widows and single women. 
I was pleased to hear the previous speaker the deputy leader of Labour say that if you can work you should work. He agrees with us. He agrees with us because that is exactly the point of this legislation: you must be work-ready. You must be able to present yourself for work and if there is a job that you can do for some of the time you should go and do it. Well welcome to National Party philosophy Grant Robertson! Society has changed and attitudes are different and given that speech they are certainly different on that side of the House. 
This Government will not accept a system that writes off tens of thousands of New Zealanders like this. The success of our Future Focus reforms proves that a more active approach to welfare results in more people with jobs. Year 1 of Future Focus resulted in 13000 people going off the domestic purposes benefit and into work and that is a 16 percent increase. This bill builds on those successes that place a much stronger focus on work for sole parents with school-age children and it also values the capacity of widows and single women to work. Our welfare system will always be there to support those in genuine need but in the main we expect that more people will be available and looking for work and we will be actively supporting people to do that with work preparation activities training budgeting and parenting programmes. 
We are targeting our resources. The current system does not step in early enough with support and resources to help those most at risk of becoming long-term beneficiaries. It channels the vast majority of resources into the people who are likely to be on a short-term benefit like the unemployment benefit. Not any more. Employment and training services in support will be more flexible with an investment approach that focuses more resources up front where the returns are the greatest. That means we will be focusing resources on people who without the right support are most likely to remain on welfare for a long time. We are helping young people because we care enough to intervene in their lives and give them a hand exactly when they need it and to place a budget mentor alongside of them teaching them how to spend their money and how to direct the funds that come their way. That is why this bill targets the young people on a collision course with long-life welfare dependence. It is vital that we intervene early and help young people at risk. The younger that young people join the welfare system the more likely they are to remain there as they move on into adulthood. That is going to change. The changes in the bill will give young people at risk the hands-on support they need to move from school into work or further training. 
This Government is determined to deliver a brighter future for all New Zealanders and we are so pleased that the leader of the Labour Party agrees with us in achieving that brighter future for all New Zealanders—that means helping those who are in need. More important it means helping those Kiwis who help themselves. This Government is standing alongside those New Zealanders not standing by as they fall through the cracks as the Labour did when it was in Government. That is what this bill is about. I am proud to commend it to the House.