Labour's Michael Wood says not all Jobseeker benefit recipients are sitting around "doing nothing", but instead may be learning new skills or dealing with "problems in their lives that might be holding them back".
His comments come off the back of a report released on Thursday showing more than 170,000 people received the Jobseeker Support benefit in the June quarter, with 100,086 deemed to be 'work-ready'. The Opposition suggested those figures should be lower considering current staff shortages.
The Ministry of Social Development (MSD) data showed the number of people receiving the Jobseeker benefit was down 10.2 percent from June last year and the percentage of the working-age population in the 'work-ready' category was in line with the record-low unemployment rate.
Speaking to AM on Friday, Wood said that's a "pretty amazing position to be in" following the COVID-19 pandemic, the largest economic shock in a century. The number of people on a main benefit also never hit what was initially forecast by Treasury at the start of the pandemic.
Wood said bringing people off the benefit was the result of programmes like the Government's Mana in Mahi, as well as bringing more caseworkers into the system and helping support Kiwis to get their driver's licence so they can go to jobs.
"Good progress. But it's an area that, of course, we will keep working on because we want to give everyone the opportunity to get into decent work," Wood said.
Wood told AM the largest proportion of people receiving the Jobseeker benefit are those moving in and out of the market, who may be leaving a job for a specific reason and only out of work for several months.
"There is still then that core of people who are longer term, but it's still a relatively small component," he said.
"Some of that is people who have got a range of challenges in their lives, reasons that are holding them back from work. It could be that there are issues around mental health, it could be that there are issues around substance addiction. It could be there is a poor work record."
As unemployment is at such a low level, Wood said we are "getting down to the people who have been a bit more disconnected from the job market" and will need more intensive support.
National's Erica Stanford, appearing alongside Wood on AM, took issue with what the minister was saying.
"Michael Wood is making it sound like those Kiwis who are sitting there on benefits, we should just consign them to that pile because, hey, we have got record-low unemployment."
She said she wants everyone to be able to get out into work.
Wood rejected Stanford's assertion and said not all of the 100,000 work-ready beneficiaries are "doing nothing".
"Very often they have a high degree of support and work being done through MSD case managers who are working with those people in terms of planning how they can get back into work, who are trying to give them the training and support, who are getting them in the programmes to deal with some of the problems in their lives that might be holding them back."
Stanford expressed concern with an increase in the number of people on the benefit for more than a year and the number of people under the age of 25 receiving a benefit.
"Look, we've got amazing conditions right now," she said. "You walk down any street in New Zealand and there are signs up saying, 'help wanted, vacancies available'."
"If we can't get people into work now, when can we ever do that? The fact that we've got 50,000 extra Kiwis on a benefit now than back in 2017, that's really concerning."
While the number of people on a Jobseeker benefit has risen considerably since Labour took power - up from 118,776 in June 2017 to 170,763 last quarter - much of that increase occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic, when there was severe economic disruption. However, there had been an increase of about 18,000 between June 2017 and June 2019, prior to the pandemic.
In a statement on Thursday, Minister for Social Development Carmel Sepuloni said there had been a downward trend in the number of people receiving a benefit over the last few quarters.
"The statistics show our investment into front-line case management is working, and while we are not out of the woods by any means, we are tracking in the right direction."
Both National and ACT said there needed to be accountability for those in the system.
"Labour is going soft on those who choose to stay dependent on the government when they are capable of working. There are no longer any serious obligations or sanctions," said ACT's Karen Chhour, who pointed to data showing fewer completed prosecutions.
MSD's report shows 5583 sanctions were issued in the June quarter, down from 7533 in the June 2021 quarter. It is way down from 15,621 in the June 2017 quarter. The main reason for sanctions being issued this quarter was not attending appointments and failing to prepare for work.
