7. Question No. 7—Social Development and EmploymentRICARDO MENÉNDEZ MARCH (Green) to the Minister for Social Development and EmploymentQuestion No. 7—Social Development and Employment7. RICARDO MENÉNDEZ MARCH (Green) to the Minister for Social Development and Employment: Does she stand by her statement I'm not going to pretend that living on $315 is easy"; if so what further steps is she going to take to ensure everybody can live with dignity?Hon CARMEL SEPULONI (Minister for Social Development and Employment): Talofa lava Mr Speaker. Yes. Living on $315 per week isn't easy. From 1 April this will be the main benefit rate for a single person 25 years or over without children. Depending on their circumstances they may be eligible for supplementary assistance like the accommodation supplement. We've come a long way but we have more to do when it comes to welfare reform and making sure everybody can live with dignity. That is why the Government announced a review of Working for Families in Budget 2021. This review was proposed by the Welfare Expert Advisory Group and is one of a number of recommendations we are working through in the short medium and long term. However I'd also like to point out that most people on a benefit want to work. Budget 2021 sees the Government invest a further $99 million in work-focused case management. This investment along with increasing main benefit rates will help us achieve our aim of ensuring people can live with dignity.Ricardo Menéndez March: What steps is she taking if any so that people don't miss out on temporary additional support payments due to increases to core benefits?Hon CARMEL SEPULONI: There is a misconception that people will have their temporary additional support abated dollar for dollar; with benefit increases that's not the case. There are many interactions within the welfare system. One of them with regards to temporary additional support is also the temporary disability exception which is on top of temporary additional support if people have a disability and have more expenses. There's an interaction there that could've seen people worse off. The Ministry of Social Development (MSD) has fixed that. There will be about 120 people on 1 July who may be worse off because of the benefit changes in the interaction but a temporary additional payment will be put in place so that that doesn't happen.Ricardo Menéndez March: Does she agree that the reasons some people experience an overall decrease when there are benefit increases is because the welfare system is broken overly complicated and ineffective at helping our most vulnerable?Hon CARMEL SEPULONI: I would agree that it is overly complicated and that is part of the set of recommendations that came from the Welfare Expert Advisory Group recommendations that were about making the welfare system less complex so that we don't have interactions that result in people being worse off in any way. So we continue to look at the welfare system and how we can fix that and make it less complicated.Ricardo Menéndez March: What further recommendations from the two-year-old Welfare Expert Advisory Group is she planning to fully implement this year?Hon CARMEL SEPULONI: As I said the Government has committed to undertaking a review of Working for Families. There's a number of other things going on. There's work on how we address debt across Government for people who have debt to Government. There is work going on with regards to childcare assistance and what we should do with that moving forward. We're constantly looking at the Welfare Expert Advisory Group's report and seeing how we can do things better. I don't want to pre-empt any other changes at the moment but we will definitely see more.Ricardo Menéndez March: Is she aware that if job seeker had been put at $315 and indexed to wages in 2019 as recommended by the Welfare Expert Advisory Group the value of job seeker would be at least $335 a week today and it is therefore inaccurate to say that the increases are on the report?Hon CARMEL SEPULONI: When we received that report we said that we would not be able to address every recommendation in that report immediately. We laid out a short- medium- long-term plan. I think many of us in this House are relieved that we've been able to increase benefits to the extent that we have. Yes we did meet the Welfare Expert Advisory Group's recommendations but actually we also need to keep in mind here that for beneficiaries with children we're beyond what the Welfare Expert Advisory Group had recommended.Ricardo Menéndez March: Will she consider universalising Working for Families so that people outside of paid employment are supported by the payment?Hon CARMEL SEPULONI: As I said there is a review of Working for Families that will be undertaken this year and I don't want to pre-empt any decisions that will be made as part of that.Jan Logie: Will further increases to baseline benefits be needed to lift the 130000 children who continue to live in material hardship out of poverty?Hon CARMEL SEPULONI: I think it's important to keep in mind that a large number of children living in material hardship are actually in working households. And I think today Bryan Perry at MSD presented a report that showed about I think 50 percent of those are in working households. I think it's important to keep in mind that there are a number of reasons why they experience material hardship. The additional costs in relation to disability is one. Another is debt and having to service that debt. So there's a range of work that needs to go on. It's not all about increasing benefits. There are some other areas that we need to address as well."