8. Question No. 8—Social Development and EmploymentDr CARLOS CHEUNG (National—Mt Roskill) to the Minister for Social Development and EmploymentQuestion No. 8—Social Development and Employment8. Dr CARLOS CHEUNG (National—Mt Roskill) to the Minister for Social Development and Employment: What recent changes has she made to support people on the jobseeker benefit into work? Hon LOUISE UPSTON (Minister for Social Development and Employment): Yesterday I outlined our Government's employment investment framework which will guide how the $1.1 billion available for the Ministry of Social Development's (MSD's) employment support schemes is spent. Three major changes will result from this new framework: (1) 70000 people will have an MSD case manager by the end of the year; (2) we are putting beneficiaries first in the queue for support schemes that boost their job prospects; and (3) we are supercharging intensive support for young job seekers. Our Government continues to take action to support more New Zealanders into work and the employment investment framework is one tool to achieve this. Dr Carlos Cheung: How will the employment investment framework work? Hon LOUISE UPSTON: Our employment strategy will be guided by the evidence of what works and what doesn't. Where programmes succeed they will continue but where they are not delivering results we will not be afraid to stop them. The framework includes a greater focus on case management which will rapidly expand to cater for 70000 people by the end of the year as well as putting beneficiaries first in line for support schemes that boost people's job prospects. Non-beneficiaries will still qualify for employment support but we don't want those most at risk of long-term welfare dependency missing out. That's why our Government is putting beneficiaries first in the queue for help. Dr Carlos Cheung: What are the targets that have been set to put beneficiaries first in line for support schemes? Hon LOUISE UPSTON: As part of the new employment investment framework I announced new targets to prioritise people on the jobseeker benefit for employment scheme support. This will see a greater proportion of MSD's spending on employment programmes such as Mana in Mahi and Flexi-wage go towards supporting people on jobseeker benefits rather than non-beneficiaries. Two targets have been set to achieve this. The first is to have 70 to 75 percent of those supported by Flexi-wage being people on jobseeker support by the end of June—an increase of 49 percent—and second to have 50 to 55 percent of those supported by Mana in Mahi being people on the jobseeker support by June 2025 an increase from 31 percent. Dr Carlos Cheung: How will these changes help young job seekers? Hon LOUISE UPSTON: We are supercharging intensive support for young job seekers by reserving 30 percent of places with in-person case managers for those aged 18 to 24. This will mean that more than 27000 young job seekers—or 65 percent of them—will receive intensive one-on-one support under our Government from either a case manager or a community-led programme. We are determined to have 50000 fewer people on the jobseeker support by 2030 and to give young New Zealanders a brighter future than almost two decades on welfare which would otherwise be forecast.