Hipango Harete; Sepuloni CarmelHARETE HIPANGO (National): Thank you Minister for the comprehensive answer. I'm now going to turn to children in benefit-dependent homes. Could the Minister please state what aspects of the 2023/24 Estimates actively plan to reduce the number of children in benefit-dependent homes when there are currently 211000 children living in these benefit-dependent homes—39000 more than when National was in power?Hon CARMEL SEPULONI (Minister for Social Development and Employment): I'm just going to respond to the Green Party member Jan Logie. I am being very careful because I'm unsure of where the process is at with the Accessibility for New Zealanders Bill and consideration of that. So I'm seeking advice to make sure that I don't pre-empt any decisions or statements made by the actual Minister for Disability Issues.With regards to children in benefit households recognising that when the number of people go up on benefit then we do have an increase in the number of children that are in benefit households or in households where they are receiving a benefit. Recognising too though that there are a number of families who are receiving a benefit who are also earning whilst they receive a benefit. They may be working part-time and it may be the extent to which they can work because of their care responsibilities with their children.Because of that I'm really proud of the fact that we were able to lift the abatement threshold so that they can earn more whilst on benefit without losing the benefit because that helps to prepare them I think for full-time work when they are able to—dependent on what their care responsibilities are for their children.We've got to keep in mind that many of those that have children on benefit—not all but many—are sole parents so often it is difficult to hold down a full-time job when you have children and you are the sole caregiver for those children. Despite the fact that we do see more children in households where someone is claiming a benefit—but keeping in mind some of them may be working part-time as well—we still see 77000 fewer children living in poverty and those are the most recent figures that we've been given on the after-housing-costs measure.That goes to show that not only have our increases to support through the welfare system but our increases to things like the minimum wage—and the range of other initiatives that we put in place—are making a real difference to the levels of poverty experienced by children in New Zealand and we need to continue on with that work.HARETE HIPANGO (National): Minister to elaborate further on that the question that I asked was what aspects of the 2023/24 Estimates actively plan to reduce the number of children in benefitdependent homes? The Minister's response addressed as to why children are in benefitdependent homes. I'm asking specifically to look into what is the Government's active plan to reduce the number of children in such homes. Thank you.Hon CARMEL SEPULONI (Minister for Social Development and Employment): I'll have to speak again to the investment in the upskilling and training and employment programme. Clearly we can't support the children into work but what we can do is work with the families to support them to take up employment and I've listed off the investments that have been made—particularly the ones at Budget 2023 and what we are planning for the year ahead—so I won't traverse that again. But we do need to be supporting the parents to be able to take up employment and then clearly if they are no longer on benefit then there are fewer children that are in households that are on benefit.