Upston Louise; Sepuloni CarmelHon LOUISE UPSTON (National—Taupō): Thank you Madam Chair. I want to come back to two figures that I talked about earlier and just simply ask the Minister—and I'd like a straight question—is the Minister concerned that there are still 50000 more on the job seeker benefit than five years ago when there are employers everywhere desperate for staff? The second is: knowing that the life outcomes for children raised in benefit-dependent homes are worse than for other children in health education incomes and their contact with the justice system is she concerned that there is one in five children being raised in a benefit-dependent home and how much will that number increase given that the number of sole parents is also blowing out? Hon CARMEL SEPULONI (Minister for Social Development and Employment): I'm very much focused on the support and trajectory in life of the children that have parents that are on low incomes or are in the benefit system. It's one of the reasons why as a Government we've reinstated the Training Incentive Allowance which had been badly slashed by the previous Government. We know that a mother's level of education will be a huge dictator with respect to what the child will be able go on and achieve and so we're supportive of sole parents who may be on benefit getting access to upskilling and training—including university degrees—and we have reinstated the funding for that purpose. What we need to be mindful of is two things: those that are in the welfare system need adequate income and we've shifted to make sure that we lifted benefits. We've got rid of some of the most unfair sanctions that actually were harmful to children that had been allowed to ride for years and we've also done things like we're now moving to ensure child support is passed on for sole parents. I think that that demonstrates this Government's commitment to supporting sole parents and their children and to supporting those sole parents to realise their potential to the benefit of their children. Hon LOUISE UPSTON (National—Taupō): Thank you Madam Chair. I want to go back to the issue of case management. Why is it that with an increase of 1500 case managers fewer people are getting case management support? Hon CARMEL SEPULONI (Minister for Social Development and Employment): We have very busy work programmes at the Ministry of Social Development (MSD). Actually under the previous Government they didn't ring-fence any of the work-focused case management and what we saw—and I think the member has seen the graph—Hon Louise Upston: Point of order Madam Chairperson. I've asked a very specific question about the annual review in the year in question and I would ask that the Minister address it. CHAIRPERSON (Hon Jenny Salesa): Perhaps if the member would be patient the Minister is going to answer it. She still has a bit of time. Hon CARMEL SEPULONI: So yes what I was most shocked by was a graph that I saw. I think that the Welfare Expert Advisory Group had focused on and had included in their report where there had been a steady decline of work-focused support for MSD clients under the previous Government because of increasing income support needs but a lack of investment in work focus. When we came into Government we committed to putting more of a focus on work-focused case management. We can now measure it more effectively. It is ring-fenced. Year on year since we've been in it's gone up and when we compare it to 2017 actually it says that the information for work-focused case managers is not available because of the fact that they didn't have the ring-fenced support in place. Also where the previous Government were providing what they recorded as work focus often it was group seminars where someone was just showing up and ticking the box and therefore it wasn't effective in supporting them into employment anyway. So I think we need to actually have some context to the question and assertions that that member is making. Hon LOUISE UPSTON (National—Taupō): We've talked also about sole parents. I'd like to know of the case managers how many are focused on sole parents and supporting them into work? Hon CARMEL SEPULONI (Minister for Social Development and Employment): I might need to go through my notes a little bit for that exact number. So I'll take another question if that's OK Madam Chair.