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Speaker 1: Number of the of people on the benefit has gone

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Speaker 1: up again. There were almost four hundred thousand people on

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Speaker 1: a main benefit at the end of last month. That's

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Speaker 1: an eight percent increase over the year before. Louise Upson

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Speaker 1: is the Minister for Social Development and Employment. High Louise,

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Speaker 1: Good afternoon, Heather, Louise. I'm not fussed about the numbers

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Speaker 1: going up because to me, that is what happens in

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Speaker 1: an economic downturn.

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Speaker 2: Yes, yeah, but it is challenging, but it is absolutely

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Speaker 2: dealing with the reality of what the last government left us.

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Speaker 2: But we're just getting on with the job.

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Speaker 1: How worried are you though, because whenever we have people

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Speaker 1: going on to the benefit, it does always create the

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Speaker 1: risk that they get there and they can't get off.

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Speaker 1: How worried you about that?

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Speaker 2: Well? I am really encouraged by the figures we've seen

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Speaker 2: in the last quarter where over sixteen thousand people have

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Speaker 2: come off the job seeker Benefit in two jobs. So

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Speaker 2: that's really encouraging. So while I accept it is challenging

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Speaker 2: out there, it's not impossible.

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Speaker 1: Do we know what jobs these people are going into.

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Speaker 2: I don't have the detail of what those jobs are,

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Speaker 2: but what I'm very clear about is a job is

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Speaker 2: better than no job, and a job leads to a

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Speaker 2: better job. And so while accept it's challenging, we want

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Speaker 2: to see more people in employment. And the figures that

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Speaker 2: have come out around the work exits nearly two thy

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Speaker 2: four hundred more than in the same time a year ago,

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Speaker 2: despite these challenging economic conditions is encouraging and it's great

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Speaker 2: to see these results.

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Speaker 1: I see that there are about forty four thousand main

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Speaker 1: benefit cancelations, which is up fifteen percent on the year before.

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Speaker 1: What is that like? Is this when you say a

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Speaker 1: main benefit cancelation, are you talking about a situation where

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Speaker 1: they want to continue to be on the benefit. They

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Speaker 1: haven't got a job to go to. When you guys

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Speaker 1: go NAT, you're off.

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Speaker 2: No, there'll be a whole different reason for cancelation. So

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Speaker 2: what it might be, just as when someone comes to

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Speaker 2: the age of eighteen, they might go on to a benefit.

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Speaker 2: At the age of sixty five, they might go off

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Speaker 2: because they're going on to superannuation. So there's a whole

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Speaker 2: bunch of reasons that people come on benefit and go off.

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Speaker 2: Our focus is absolutely on job seekers because there's the

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Speaker 2: group that I worry about, people who are on the

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Speaker 2: job seeker benefit. We want to see them get into

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Speaker 2: employment and to see them have opportunities for the future.

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Speaker 1: Okay, do you have no idea what proportion of the

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Speaker 1: main benefit cancelations is actually chucking people off the doll altogether.

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Speaker 2: No, But as I said, those sixteen thousand that I

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Speaker 2: just referred to job seekers, which are a subcategory of

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Speaker 2: that forty four thousand that have gone into employment.

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Speaker 1: But that's countered differently, isn't it, because that's counted as

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Speaker 1: the exits into work category.

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Speaker 2: But it's a subset. It's a subset of those set of.

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Speaker 1: The original number of its. Yeah, I'm with you, and

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Speaker 1: the sanctions going up, are we seeing any indication that

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Speaker 1: sanctioning these guys is actually giving them the hurry up

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Speaker 1: and getting them off the door.

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Speaker 2: Yes. So the fact that we've only got one percent

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Speaker 2: at Orange and one percent at Red is really really encouraging.

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Speaker 2: So it means that people are responding when there is

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Speaker 2: when they go to Orange, they'll take the actions they

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Speaker 2: need to get back straight into Green. And that's what

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Speaker 2: the system's about. It's about being really simple and clear

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Speaker 2: to understand. If you're on a job seeker benefit, what

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Speaker 2: are your obligations, What are your obligations to be in

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Speaker 2: contact with MSD, to be applying for jobs and to

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Speaker 2: accept a job that's offered. And as I said, ninety

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Speaker 2: eight percent are complying with their work obligations, which is.

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Speaker 1: Great, fantastic, Hey, Louise, thank you so much for talking

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Speaker 1: us through that. That's Louise Upston, the Minister for Social

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Speaker 1: Development and Employment.

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