8. Question No. 8—Social DevelopmentHon LOUISE UPSTON (National—Taupō) to the Minister for Social DevelopmentQuestion No. 8—Social DevelopmentSPEAKER: Question No. 8 the Hon Louise Upston. Question No. 9 Chris Bishop. Hon Louise Upston: I didn't hear you sorry. SPEAKER: Well I will go back to the member but it's up to her to listen. 8. Hon LOUISE UPSTON (National—Taupō) to the Minister for Social Development: Does she stand by her statement that the Government's plan to get people off the benefit and into work is starting to pay off"? Hon CARMEL SEPULONI (Minister for Social Development): Yes. I stand by the 42834 cancellations into work that have occurred since July following our investment into 170 extra front-line case managers to support people into work. There have been 6703 cancellations into work in the last month alone—an increase of 27.9 percent from this time last year—and the highest number of exits into work for the month of January in the last five years. We have more New Zealanders in work than ever before and the weekly average wage is up $80 since we took office. Sixteen thousand Ministry of Social Development (MSD) clients have been supported towards employment through upskilling and training in 2019. This Government is committed to supporting people into sustainable work and these figures show that we are making real progress. Hon Louise Upston: Does she accept that Labour has overseen the three lowest ever quarters for the number of people moving off benefit and into work? Hon CARMEL SEPULONI: As I've already stated what we've seen is actually an increase in the number of people exiting benefit for work. Quite often in this House the member likes to refer to the raw figures but even if we look at the proportion of working-age New Zealanders on benefit at the moment it's 10.5 percent compared to December 2014 where it was 11.2 percent. Hon Louise Upston: Does she believe that the Government's plan is paying off for the 27000 more New Zealanders on job seeker support since Labour took office? Hon CARMEL SEPULONI: Do I think that we've got more to do? Absolutely but as I said this Government is focused on supporting New Zealanders into upskilling and training and into employment. That is why we have invested in programmes like Mana in Mahi. We recognise and particularly I when I go across the country that many of the jobs that are advertised within our MSD office require a level of skill—skill that wasn't invested in by the previous Government—so many of the people that come through our offices aren't necessarily equipped with the qualifications skills or experience to take up the roles. We're committed to making sure that they have those skills that they have those qualifications and that they're supported into the jobs that are available. Hon Louise Upston: If your plan is paying off why has the proportion of people who go back on to benefit 16 weeks after completing an intervention increased every year under your Government? Hon CARMEL SEPULONI: That's an interesting question because under the previous Government I was highly critical of the fact that they were not actually measuring whether or not the employment that they were putting people into was sustainable or not and under them we saw a large number of people who did exit benefit for work back on benefit within the next 18 months. Just recently actually I was given advice—because we are starting to look at sustainable employment—that just over the last three months sustainable employment places have gone up month on month. So I'm really glad that as a Government we are actually measuring things that count unlike the previous Government. Hon Louise Upston: How many more people will go on to the dole before you admit that your welfare—SPEAKER: Order! Order! Order! The member is going to start the question again. I've let her run twice with out-of-order questions. This time she's not going to bring me into it. Hon Louise Upston: How many more people will go on to the dole before the Minister admits that her welfare plans aren't paying off and considers taking some advice from National about how to give people opportunities to get ahead? Hon CARMEL SEPULONI: I'm very confident with the plan that we have in place on this side of the House. We recognise that it is about the welfare system but also about the investment that we put into education and other areas as well. Also I would like to say on the record that if that member ever asks me a question again in this House about a thing called the dole—which does not exist—I will refuse to answer the question."