Sabin Mike: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
Sabin Mike: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
[Volume:678;Page:896] 
7. 
MIKE SABIN (National—Northland) 
 to the  
Minister for Social Development 
: How will the Government’s recently announced changes target young people not in education employment or training? 
Hon PAULA BENNETT (Minister for Social Development) 
: 
 The changes we have announced target up to 14000 at-risk 16 and 17-year-olds most of whom are not yet on a benefit but are on a collision course with the benefit system. We are going to contract with youth service providers to work with these young people to place them in work-based learning education or training. Potentially Youth Guarantee places which my colleague referred to in his earlier question will pay providers on their success in working with and placing the young person in education training and work-based learning a financial bonus. 
Mike Sabin 
: What has been the impact of the global economic recession on young people? 
Hon PAULA BENNETT 
: Since the Government took office in late 2008 we have seen those not in education employment or training—“neets”—rise from 10.9 percent in December 2008 to 13.1 percent in December 2011 which is a rise that we would rather not have seen I am sure. However before the opposite side start jumping up and down from 2004 to 2008 the “neet” rate actually rose fluctuating between 10.3 percent and 12 percent when we had a labour market that was essentially crying out for workers which is why we have got to target these young people. They have been left behind. We can and we must do better by them. 
Mike Sabin 
: How will at-risk 16 and 17-year-olds be picked up by the system? 
Hon PAULA BENNETT 
: We know that around 90 percent of these 14000 young people will end up on a benefit unless we ensure they continue in education training or a work-based opportunity or even in some cases get themselves into it. But currently we do not know where they are and that is the reality. In some places we do where we have schools in real time giving that information to service providers but it is patchy and not happening consistently enough. We will be changing the rules so that schools are directly and in real time letting a service provider know when that young person has left school so that we can connect to them quickly and in an appropriate manner so that we can then wrap those services round them. 
Jacinda Ardern 
: Does she accept that her targeting of solely 16 and 17-year-olds is leaving young people behind with Youth Transition Services saying that her changes to their contracts will mean that up to 60 percent of the young people they are dealing with now will no longer be covered? 
Hon PAULA BENNETT 
: I think we have identified why we are targeting those 16 and 17-year-olds and really clearly. Hopefully the member is starting to get that—that they really are those who are most at risk. But different branches of Youth Transition Services work in different ways. For example the one in west Auckland will tell you that 70 percent of those young people they work with are 16 or 17-year-olds. There will also be a small percentage that are able to work outside of that because we recognise there needs to be a little bit of flexibility. But for them to target where we most need it I think is necessary and will give us the right kind of results for those young people. 
Jacinda Ardern 
: How much of the $17.15 million that has already been drawn down to fund information technology changes for her youth package was for her payment card which on her own estimates will affect only 2800 people? 
Hon PAULA BENNETT 
: I do not have the breakdown of that in front of me but what I can tell the member is that the information technology systems that we are building up alongside the youth payment and alongside the sorts of changes in the first bill are also those that will be going into the bigger welfare reforms. So we are actually setting the whole system up. We are using this as the first tranche of that but they will be actually used in the whole reform process.