Ardern Jacinda: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Ardern Jacinda: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
[Sitting date: 16 February 2012. Volume:677;Page:486. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
4. 
JACINDA ARDERN (Labour) 
 to the  
Minister for Social Development 
: Does she have confidence that Work and Income meets their own “case management approach” expectations? 
Hon CHESTER BORROWS (Associate Minister of Social Development) 
 on behalf of the Minister for Social Development: Yes. Work and Income deals with 147 million transactions a year. That is 2.8 million transactions a week and 403000 transactions a day. The Minister believes Work and Income staff work very hard and she backs them. 
Jacinda Ardern 
: Does she believe the level of support a sole parent on the domestic purposes benefit can access in order to move into work or education is sufficient? 
Hon CHESTER BORROWS 
: Yes; there are a number of benefits and assistance packages that women on the domestic purposes benefit or anyone on the domestic purposes benefit can access in order to get into education. It depends on which level of education they wish to access as to how those benefits will be applied. But they are available for instance for university study in the form of student loans and allowances; for lower-level qualifications—levels 1 2 and 3—that they are seeking they can still receive the training incentive allowance. 
Jacinda Ardern 
: How much can someone on the domestic purposes benefit who wants to move into education and who has one dependent child and no income receive per hour per child to assist with childcare? 
Hon CHESTER BORROWS 
: It is a very precise question given the primary question but as I understand it a person on the domestic purposes benefit with one child is able to receive the normal domestic purposes benefit. She may well be entitled to accommodation supplements on top of that. She is also entitled to early childhood education and childcare allowances on top of that. She is able to receive student loans in respect of meeting the fees for each paper and also a $1000 grant for course-related costs. 
Jacinda Ardern 
: I seek leave to table the details of the childcare subsidy which states that the mother shall be— 
Mr SPEAKER 
: Order! Before we go into that what is the source of this document? 
Jacinda Ardern 
: It is available publicly but given the Minister was unable to answer the specific question— 
Mr SPEAKER 
: Order! That was just grandstanding; we do not do that under a point of order. Silly me! Let me reword that. We should not do that under a point of order. 
Jacinda Ardern 
: What is the difference in support a solo mum with one dependent child and no income will be eligible for if she wishes to study and approaches StudyLink versus if that same solo mother went to Work and Income and why is there such a difference? 
Mr SPEAKER 
: I call the Hon Chester Borrows in so far as he is able to give an answer in the breadth of the primary question. 
Hon CHESTER BORROWS 
: I would draw attention to the breadth of this question away from the primary question which related to expectations of people approaching a case manager at Work and Income. 
Jacinda Ardern 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. The original question obviously relates to an issue of the day where Work and Income have given inadequate advice to a domestic purposes benefit mum and part of that was her getting very different advice from both StudyLink and Work and Income. So all of this does relate to the adequacy of the advice that Work and Income staff— 
Mr SPEAKER 
: Order! My advice to the member is if she wants Ministers to have that kind of detail available to answer questions make the primary question more clear. With all respect this primary question is very broad and it is not reasonable to expect that the Minister could have that level of detail given that primary question. 
Jacinda Ardern 
: To what does she attribute our status as having one of the highest rates of unemployment for sole parents in the OECD next to Turkey and Malta: a lack of willingness to work as her welfare reform package implies or the barriers to work as the reality suggests? 
Hon CHESTER BORROWS 
: The finding on New Zealand’s provision of services to people wishing to study who are in receipt of a domestic purposes benefit in respect of other OECD countries was not made by the Minister but in fact by an independent organisation. It is interesting to note that there is lots of assistance available to sole parents. Even without the training incentive allowance there is extensive support available for domestic purposes benefit recipients studying at tertiary level including interest-free student loans student allowances childcare subsidies the accommodation supplement out-of-school care and recreation subsidies 20 hours’ free early childhood education temporary additional support special-needs grants and so on and these are not available in many other countries.