8. Question No. 8—Social Development and EmploymentRICARDO MENÉNDEZ MARCH (Green) to the Minister for Social Development and EmploymentQuestion No. 8—Social Development and Employment8. RICARDO MENÉNDEZ MARCH (Green) to the Minister for Social Development and Employment: Does she agree with the deputy chief executive of MSD who told the Social Services and Community Committee They do not get punished that's unfair—they do not get sanctions. They do not get sanctioned they do not get sanctions for not coming to our work seminars"; if so will she commit to ensuring people do not face sanctions for not attending work seminars?Hon PENNY SIMMONDS (Associate Minister for Social Development and Employment) on behalf of the Minister for Social Development and Employment: I thank the member for his question and on behalf of the Minister and in answer to the first question: yes because the discussion at select committee on this topic was incomplete as the committee abruptly adjourned and the Ministry of Social Development (MSD) made clear in a later answer to the committee that those who failed to turn up to work seminars can be sanctioned. I understand that MSD thought the member's question at select committee referred to job expos and work seminars. To clarify job expos do not automatically result in a sanction for non-attendance. For the vast majority of job seekers attendance is encouraged and voluntary. In some circumstances MSD will require attendance at expos which can result in a sanction. To answer the member's second question: no. This Government has reset the welfare system's expectations including applying sanctions where job seekers refuse to comply with their obligations. We expect job seekers to attend work seminars as part of the reasonable steps they must take to become work-ready and find work.Ricardo Menéndez March: Why is she able to quantify how many people get sanctioned for missing work obligations such as failing to attend work seminars but she can't quantify how many people enter employment as a direct result of engaging with work obligations?Hon PENNY SIMMONDS: The information is collated on an individual basis so those that attend work seminars will then have noted in their files whether they got employment from it or not. But MSD doesn't collate all that information up and have one source of information about how many got into employment from attending job seminars.Ricardo Menéndez March: How then can she be confident that the work obligations she wants to impose on people will help them get into jobs when she can't show any evidence of these work seminars meaningfully supporting people into stable secure employment?Hon PENNY SIMMONDS: There are 190000 people on jobseeker benefits. That's a 70000 increase under Labour. So clearly nothing was working previously and it behoves us to ensure that we try a variety of means to assist people into employment including work seminars including job expos and as I explained in my previous answer that information about whether attending a work seminar got someone into employment is kept for that individual; it's just not collated up across the country.Ricardo Menéndez March: How can she be confident that work seminars support people into employment when the people in charge of running them could not be up front with select committee members about the consequences of not attending these seminars and she is refusing to present evidence on whether they support people into employment?Hon PENNY SIMMONDS: I don't believe that the people were refusing or misleading in any way. They made it very clear that they had misunderstood the question at select committee that they thought it was both job expos and work seminars. We know that the job seminars do assist people in getting into employment. We know that it helps with getting their CVs together; it helps with learning interview techniques; and we know that for example at a recent seminar in the top of the South Island 82 Kiwi job seekers turned up and 64 received interviews from that.Ricardo Menéndez March: Will she commit to reporting outcomes of these work seminars and if not why not?Hon PENNY SIMMONDS: As I explained those outcomes are reported and are recorded on an individual basis; they are just not collated right across the country. So on an individual basis someone turning up to a work seminar it will be recorded whether it was successful in supporting them into employment or not.Ricardo Menéndez March: If these outcomes are not collected nationally how does she know that forcing people to attend work seminars to avoid facing sanctions is supporting people into meaningful secure employment?Hon PENNY SIMMONDS: We know that there's a range of things that have to be done to assist the 190000 people to have a really good chance to get into employment. Obviously things like getting help in putting CVs together getting help in interview techniques getting help with getting their driver's licence—all those things assist towards it. We know that the fact that an extra 70000 going on to the jobseeker benefit since the previous Government was in power has meant that it hasn't worked. So we should be trying every single thing we can to assist people into employment."