10. Question No. 10—Social Development and EmploymentDEBBIE NGAREWA-PACKER (Co-Leader—Te Pāti Māori) to the Minister for Social Development and EmploymentQuestion No. 10—Social Development and Employment10. DEBBIE NGAREWA-PACKER (Co-Leader—Te Pāti Māori) to the Minister for Social Development and Employment: Does she stand by all of her statements and policies?Hon LOUISE UPSTON (Minister for Social Development and Employment): Yes.Debbie Ngarewa-Packer: What evidence does she have that the sanctions on beneficiaries will help get more people into employment?Hon LOUISE UPSTON: The empirical evidence that says the number on jobseeker benefit has gone up by 76000 when there's been a 50 percent reduction in the number of sanctions applied in the last six years.Ricardo Menéndez March: Point of order. The question was not addressed. There was a specific question around empirical evidence and then she talked about the number of people on the benefit. Sorry—the question was relating to evidence on sanctions and she just spoke on something completely unrelated which is just people on the jobseeker benefit. Those two things are not related to one another.SPEAKER: Yeah. It's the same problem that everyone has. When a question is asked the answer won't always be satisfactory. However the question was addressed.Debbie Ngarewa-Packer: How will the Government get job seekers into work?Hon LOUISE UPSTON: I thank the member for their question because I know that many are worried about the number of people who have been on jobseeker benefit and stuck there for years. There's a range of things that we will do. Our Welfare that Works policy is the first one we will roll out because of the significant increase in the young people under 25. Individuals will get a needs assessment. There'll be a job coach. We want to work with community providers and I've already been talking to iwi organisations who may well be interested in providing that service. And there will be a carrot and stick approach to ensure that young people who can work do.Takutai Tarsh Kemp: How many tamariki would be impacted by sanctions if the traffic light system were in place today?Hon LOUISE UPSTON: Thank you for that question. One of the elements that is a significant change in the traffic light system that's proposed are non-financial sanctions. I have been concerned as others have that there have been financial sanctions where there has been a household with children so the deliberate design is to come up with non-financial sanctions to prevent that from occurring.Takutai Tarsh Kemp: How will the ministry assist children whose parents have had their benefits cut?Hon LOUISE UPSTON: As I said in my last answer part of the traffic light system is the introduction of non-financial sanctions. The front-line staff who work at Work and Income work incredibly hard to ensure that people do comply with their obligations and we're looking at fairly simple obligations if you're a job seeker: to have a CV apply for jobs turn up to a job interview and accept a job that is offered. It is really important for the tamariki in those families that they do have a parent in work.Takutai Tarsh Kemp: What benefit security is in place for people with disabilities and long-term medical conditions to ensure they can live with dignity without having to continually prove their medical condition to the Government under the threat of being sanctioned?Hon LOUISE UPSTON: Much of what I've spoken about is in terms of the traffic light system for obligations around job seekers. I appreciate that we must always have a welfare system that supports those who have permanent disabilities—they are on the supported living payment for example. But I also accept that there will be some who wish to work in some capacity and we should support them in doing that.