Latest / The SME Stream / Louise Upston: Social Development Minister on the 12.8 percent increase in people receiving Jobseeker benefit

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

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: A number of people on the benefit has gone up again.
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: There were almost four hundred thousand people on a main
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: benefit at the end of last month. That's an eight
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: percent increase over the year before. Louise Upson is the
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: Minister for Social Development and Employment.
• 0:12
  Speaker 2: Hi, Louise, Good afternoon, Heather.
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: Louise. I'm not fussed about the numbers going up because
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: to me, that is what happens in an economic downturn.
• 0:19
  Speaker 2: Yes, yeah, but it is challenging, but it is absolutely
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: dealing with the reality of what the last government left us.
• 0:28
  Speaker 2: But we're just getting on with the job.
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: How worried are you though, because whenever we have people
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: going on to the benefit, it does always create the
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: risk that they get there and they can't get off.
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: How worried are you about that?
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: Well? I am really encouraged by the figures we've seen
• 0:43
  Speaker 2: in the last quarter whereas over sixteen thousand people have
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: come off the job seeker Benefit in two jobs, so
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: that's really encouraging. So while I accept it is challenging
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: out there, it's not impossible.
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: Do we know what jobs these people are going into.
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: I don't have the detail of what those jobs are,
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: but what I am very clear about is a job
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: is better than no job, and a job leads to
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: a better job. And so while I accept it's challenging,
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: we want to see more people in employment. And the
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: figures that have come out around the work exits nearly
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: two thy four hundred more than in the same time
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: a year ago, despite these challenging economic conditions is encouraging
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: and it's great to see these results.
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: I see that there are about forty four thousand main
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: benefit cancelations, which is up fifteen percent on the year before.
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: What is that like? Is this when you say a
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: main benefit cancelation, are you talking about a situation where
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: they want to continue to be on the benefit they
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: haven't got a job to go to. When you guys
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: go nah, you're off.
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: No, there'll be a whole different reason for cancelation. So
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: what it might be, just as when someone comes to
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: the age of eighteen, they might go on to a benefit.
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: At the age of sixty five, they might go off
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: because they're going on to superannuation. So there's a whole
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: bunch of reasons that people come on benefit and go off.
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: Our focus is absolutely on job seekers because there's the
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: group that I worry about people who are on the
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: job seeker benefit. We want to see them get into
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: employment and to see them have opportunities for the future.
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: Okay, you have no idea what proportion of the main
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: benefit cancelations is actually chucking people off the doll altogether.
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: No, But as I said, those sixteen thousand that I
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: just referred to job seekers, which are a subcategory of
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: that forty four thousand that have gone into employment.
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: But that's countered differently, isn't it, because that's counted as
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: the exits into work category.
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: But it's a subset. It's a subset of those.
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: Set of the original number offits Yeah, I'm with you.
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: And the sanctions going up, are we seeing any indication
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: that sanctioning these guys is actually giving them the hurry
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: up and getting them off the door.
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: Yes. So the fact that we've only got one percent
• 3:07
  Speaker 2: at Orange and one percent at Red is really really encouraging.
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: So it means that people are responding when there is
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: when they go to Orange, they'll take the actions they
• 3:17
  Speaker 2: need to get back straight into Green. And that's what
• 3:21
  Speaker 2: the system's about. It's about being really simple and clear
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: to understand. If you're on a job seeker benefit, What
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: are your obligations, what are your obligations to be in
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: contact with MSD, to be applying for jobs and to
• 3:34
  Speaker 2: accept a job that's offered. And as I said, ninety
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: eight percent are complying with their work obligations, which is great.
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: Fantastic, Hey, Louise, thank you so much for talking us
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: through that. That's Louise Upston, the Minister for Social Development
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: and Employment