Bennett Paula: Social Assistance (New Work Tests Incentives and Obligations) Amendment Bill — In Committee 
Bennett Paula: Social Assistance (New Work Tests Incentives and Obligations) Amendment Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:665;Page:13142] 
Hon PAULA BENNETT (Minister for Social Development and Employment) 
: 
 I will respond and put some of the facts on the table. Currently around 6000 jobs are registered with Work and Income and around 1200 come in every week. Last month alone we saw more than 4000 people come off the unemployment benefit for the reason of finding work—more than 4000 people just last month. We are triaging away. Of those who come into Work and Income to go on to a benefit up to 40 percent currently are going away; they do not need a benefit because they have found work. 
I will put some perspective around sole parents and their capacity to work. Thirty-five percent of sole parents work full-time 52 percent are employed and 10000 people who are currently on the domestic purposes benefit earn more than $80 a week. I will give those numbers again because they give a little bit of perspective on where we are at and what we are dealing with. 
To put some context around those numbers I do not underestimate the size of what we are trying to do. I do not underestimate how people’s confidence can be low how hard it is to go out and ask for someone to give them a job. I do not underestimate the courage it takes to get out there and put oneself forward when one has perhaps been unemployed for quite some time. That does not mean that I believe those people cannot do it. That does not mean that I will not believe in their capacity to have a better life than what such limited income and opportunities there are on the benefit provide. I believe in the Social Assistance (New Work Tests Incentives and Obligations) Amendment Bill which we have put forward. I think it gives a level of fairness the right sorts of obligations and the right sorts of incentives. 
I will put this issue in perspective with regard to the calls that I often get and what I have been hearing so far today. Thirty-five percent of sole parents are working full-time 52 percent are currently employed and 10000 people on the domestic purposes benefit earn over $80 per week. What we are doing is—[ 
Interruption 
] That member knows what this bill is doing. I know that the Committee recognises that the bill is raising those abatement thresholds. It is giving beneficiaries an opportunity to earn more and keep it in their pockets. I know that the Committee recognises that we are legislating for CPI increases—something that has never been done before. It locks that in and makes sure that people are recognised. 
I also acknowledge out-of-school care and recreation. We are looking at after-school care. We recognise that we can put a bit more money in there we can get rid of some of the bureaucracy and we can make sure that they are getting that level of support. We are also addressing a whole lot of the issues of the independent youth benefit. I felt strongly about the independent youth benefit. I felt that there was an obligation on those who are aged below 18 to be in education or training first of all—for some it may be a job. Education and training will now be compulsory for those under the age of 18 who receive State help. Whereas it has been optional before we are moving towards making it compulsory. Those are parts of the bill that I think are fair and are moving in the right direction. 
I also bring to the Committee’s attention some of the financial benefits that the changes to this bill can make which are very real. For example let us look at the financial benefit from work as of 1 October when this is introduced for a sole parent with two children over 6 perhaps living in South Auckland and earning the minimum wage. If that person was on a benefit and not working they may get around $278 a week on the domestic purposes benefit a family tax credit of around $149 an accommodation supplement of $165 temporary additional support of $14.73 and temporary GST assistance of $5.62. That is a total of $612.60. On a benefit working 15 hours a week on the minimum wage—I am not trying to dress it up to make it look any better than it is—they would still get the domestic purposes benefit of about $250 a week and their wage or salary would be about $153. The others stay as they are except that they lose the $14.73 temporary assistance. They are getting a total of $724 a week. We are talking about them being $110 a week better off. They also continue to have access to an accommodation supplement which is included in that $110 figure. They will also get access to childcare assistance. There is often that discrepancy for people who may not understand that they can still keep assistance from Work and Income if they work; it is not just one or the other. 
As I have already stated we have more work coming into Work and Income on a weekly basis now than we had at this time last year. We now have 86 industry partnerships working directly with industry and with employers who want to help us employ people and get the right training involved. Seventeen have stepped up and said that they want to work exclusively with sole parents. They want to recognise them as a workforce of the future they think that they have something to give and are of value and they want to work alongside them. 
We also recognise Job Ops and what it has brought. Around 7200 people have taken up job opportunities with employers. Of them at the moment anywhere between 75 and 80 percent come off and do not go back on to a benefit. That has made a significant difference. In the Budget we introduced another 6000 places. A financial budget of about $24.7 million went into that initiative. As the Committee will be aware we also recently reintroduced the Community Max programme. There are 1500 places going into rural communities. We have just reintroduced another 1500 places on that which we know are making a difference. A whole lot of other programmes are also going along. Some of the members may have seen changes to the Training Opportunities Programme which we recently introduced. We are moving some of those opportunities into more employment-focused training programmes. 
We believe that we can work with those providers in a different way directly related to employers. We can get quite local in terms of what work is coming up and where it is likely to be and get better at focusing and getting future work going. We can make sure that work is available for those who receive benefits and we can help them move towards it. 
Once it is balanced once people look at this bill for what it is actually giving and recognise exactly the volume of work that is coming in but also recognise that these are not the easiest of times I believe they will see that things will get better. There will be more opportunities for people. This bill will be part of that future focus and recognising the opportunities for those people.