Louise Upston: Social Development Minister on the 12.8 percent increase in people receiving Jobseeker benefit

Social Development Minister Louise Upston isn't worried by the increase in Kiwis relying on the benefit.

The Ministry of Social Development released numbers for the last quarter - showing nearly 205,000 people were receiving Jobseeker support, a 12.8 percent increase in a year. 

Upston says more unemployment is common during an economic downturn - but she's pleased to note more people have cancelled their benefit payments because they found work.

"I am really encouraged by the figures we've seen in the last quarter, where over 16,000 people have come off the jobseeker benefit and into jobs. That's really encouraging. So while I accept it's challenging out there, it's not impossible." 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Number of the of people on the benefit has gone
up again. There were almost four hundred thousand people on
a main benefit at the end of last month. That's
an eight percent increase over the year before. Louise Upson
is the Minister for Social Development and Employment. High Louise,
Good afternoon, Heather, Louise. I'm not fussed about the numbers
going up because to me, that is what happens in
an economic downturn.

Speaker 2 (00:19):
Yes, yeah, but it is challenging, but it is absolutely
dealing with the reality of what the last government left us.
But we're just getting on with the job.

Speaker 1 (00:30):
How worried are you though, because whenever we have people
going on to the benefit, it does always create the
risk that they get there and they can't get off.
How worried you about that?

Speaker 2 (00:40):
Well? I am really encouraged by the figures we've seen
in the last quarter where over sixteen thousand people have
come off the job seeker Benefit in two jobs. So
that's really encouraging. So while I accept it is challenging
out there, it's not impossible.

Speaker 1 (00:58):
Do we know what jobs these people are going into.

Speaker 2 (01:03):
I don't have the detail of what those jobs are,
but what I'm very clear about is a job is
better than no job, and a job leads to a
better job. And so while accept it's challenging, we want
to see more people in employment. And the figures that
have come out around the work exits nearly two thy
four hundred more than in the same time a year ago,

(01:27):
despite these challenging economic conditions is encouraging and it's great
to see these results.

Speaker 1 (01:34):
I see that there are about forty four thousand main
benefit cancelations, which is up fifteen percent on the year before.
What is that like? Is this when you say a
main benefit cancelation, are you talking about a situation where
they want to continue to be on the benefit. They
haven't got a job to go to. When you guys
go NAT, you're off.

Speaker 2 (01:50):
No, there'll be a whole different reason for cancelation. So
what it might be, just as when someone comes to
the age of eighteen, they might go on to a benefit.
At the age of sixty five, they might go off
because they're going on to superannuation. So there's a whole
bunch of reasons that people come on benefit and go off.

(02:13):
Our focus is absolutely on job seekers because there's the
group that I worry about, people who are on the
job seeker benefit. We want to see them get into
employment and to see them have opportunities for the future.

Speaker 1 (02:29):
Okay, do you have no idea what proportion of the
main benefit cancelations is actually chucking people off the doll altogether.

Speaker 2 (02:36):
No, But as I said, those sixteen thousand that I
just referred to job seekers, which are a subcategory of
that forty four thousand that have gone into employment.

Speaker 1 (02:46):
But that's countered differently, isn't it, because that's counted as
the exits into work category.

Speaker 2 (02:51):
But it's a subset. It's a subset of those set of.

Speaker 1 (02:54):
The original number of its. Yeah, I'm with you, and
the sanctions going up, are we seeing any indication that
sanctioning these guys is actually giving them the hurry up
and getting them off the door.

Speaker 2 (03:05):
Yes. So the fact that we've only got one percent
at Orange and one percent at Red is really really encouraging.
So it means that people are responding when there is
when they go to Orange, they'll take the actions they
need to get back straight into Green. And that's what
the system's about. It's about being really simple and clear
to understand. If you're on a job seeker benefit, what

(03:27):
are your obligations, What are your obligations to be in
contact with MSD, to be applying for jobs and to
accept a job that's offered. And as I said, ninety
eight percent are complying with their work obligations, which is.

Speaker 1 (03:41):
Great, fantastic, Hey, Louise, thank you so much for talking
us through that. That's Louise Upston, the Minister for Social
Development and Employment.

Speaker 2 (03:47):
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