New targets will see a greater proportion of the Ministry of Social Development’s spending on employment programmes go towards supporting people on Jobseeker benefits, rather than non-beneficiaries.

Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston has today outlined the Government’s employment investment framework, which will guide how the $1.1 billion available for MSD’s employment support schemes is spent.

The framework includes a greater focus on case management, which will rapidly expand to cater for 70,000 people by the end of the year, as well as putting beneficiaries “first in line” for support schemes that boost people’s job prospects.

“The previous government’s approach saw significant numbers of people who were not receiving any benefit accessing expensive employment schemes,” Louise Upston says.

“For example, 62 per cent of Mana in Mahi participants weren’t on a main benefit in the second half of 2023, while just 31 per cent were Jobseeker beneficiaries.

“The last Government argued that spending on non-beneficiaries would prevent them entering the benefit system, but 70,000 more people moved onto Jobseeker Support during its time and 35,000 spent longer than a year on this benefit at a time when businesses were desperate for staff.”    

“Our Government is putting beneficiaries first in the queue for help.

“Each participant in Mana-in-Mahi costs $17,000 and each Flexi-Wage participant costs $8000, so we need to make sure these resources are being spent on those with the greatest need over those capable of obtaining work without it.”

Two targets have been set to achieve this:

• To have 70%-75% of those supported by Flexi-wage being people on Jobseeker Support by June 2025 (up from 49%)
• To have 50%-55% of those supported by Mana in Mahi being people on Jobseeker Support by June 2025 (up from 31%)

“Non-beneficiaries will still qualify for employment support, but we don’t want those most at risk of long-term welfare dependency missing out,” Louise Upston says.

“Our employment strategy will be guided by the evidence of what works, and what doesn’t. Where programmes succeed, they will continue, but where they are not delivering results, we will not be afraid to stop them.

“We will boost support for people on Jobseeker benefits, with the new phone-based case management service we announced earlier this year expanding to accommodate 10,000 job seekers by the end of the year.

“This will take the number of people in case management at any given time to 70,000, up from 60,000 when we came into government.

“We’re supercharging intensive support for young job seekers by reserving 30 per cent of places with in-person case managers for those aged 18 to 24. This will mean more than 27,000 young job seekers, or 65 per cent, are receiving one-on-one support from either a case manager or a community-led programme.

“We’re determined to have 50,000 fewer people on Jobseeker Support by 2030 and give young Kiwis a brighter future than almost two decades on welfare.”