11. Question No. 11—Social Development and EmploymentRICARDO MENÉNDEZ MARCH (Green) to the Minister for Social Development and EmploymentQuestion No. 11—Social Development and Employment11. RICARDO MENÉNDEZ MARCH (Green) to the Minister for Social Development and Employment: Does she believe the welfare system should aim to alleviate hardship or eliminate hardship?Hon CARMEL SEPULONI (Minister for Social Development and Employment): All of us in this House would like to see the elimination of poverty and hardship in Aotearoa but every Government understands that there are no overnight solutions to achieving that. As a Government we've been clear about our commitment to addressing income adequacy for those in work and those on the welfare system. But more than that we have made significant progress in this area. We are the first Government to measure child poverty and hold ourselves accountable to addressing it. In our first 100 days last term we invested $5.5 billion into our Families Package to boost the income of low- and middle-income families. We have since lifted main benefits and indexed them to wages raised abatement thresholds and invested significantly into supporting people into work. We know we have much more to do but we are very much committed to doing the work. We have a programme of work which we are conducting on the back of the Welfare Expert Advisory Group's report. New steps will come out of this work as outlined in the Cabinet paper and any announcements will be made in due course.Ricardo Menéndez March: Is she aware a single person over 25 years old will only receive an extra $8 per week as a result of their recent increases to benefit levels which is not even enough to meet the average cost of a block of cheese?Hon CARMEL SEPULONI: A single person over the age of 25 would have benefited from not only the $25 increase to benefits but also the indexation of benefits to wages. I do need to speak to the indexation of benefits to wages. That's an enduring change that will mean that benefits go up year on year more than what they would have previously. I will also say that we've been very clear there's more to do in this space and we're very much committed to doing more.Ricardo Menéndez March: Is $315 a week enough for someone on a job seeker benefit to live with dignity given the increased cost of living and sky-rocketing rents?Hon CARMEL SEPULONI: I'm not going to pretend that living off $315 a week is easy. We do need to reflect on this country's history and it goes back to the cuts that were made under National in the 1990s. We've never been able to catch those figures up. We've made significant progress to date with regards to making our welfare system fairer but there certainly is more to do.Ricardo Menéndez March: Does she agree with Helen Robinson the head of the Auckland City Mission who said this week that benefits needed to go up by $200 each week to allow people to live with dignity?Hon CARMEL SEPULONI: There are many great people working across social services working in our city missions and many of them have come forward saying what they think needs to happen with regards to benefit increases. We also have the Welfare Expert Advisory Group's report which was really clear on what they thought needed to happen with regards to benefit increases. We said in our manifesto that we would address income adequacy in our welfare system this term and we're very much committed to doing that.Ricardo Menéndez March: Does she agree that because of rising living costs the benefit increases recommended by the Welfare Expert Advisory Group two years ago would not be enough for people to live with dignity today?Hon CARMEL SEPULONI: As I have already said we have committed to addressing income adequacy in the welfare system work is already under way we have made some significant changes and we plan to make some more significant changes this term.