Increase employment support through the Ministry of Social Development

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Children and young people are loved, safe and nurtured

Status:
Embedded
Lead agency:
Ministry of Social Development
Action timeframe:
From 2019

Budget 2019 provided funding for the Ministry of Social Development to increase case management at the frontline, enabling staff to work more intensively to help more people into meaningful and sustainable work.

Recruitment of the new FTEs started July 2019 and completed 11 November 2019 (initially an additional 170 FTEs, increasing to 263 in 2020/21).

There has been an increase in clients exiting benefit into employment (13% higher in July to December 2019 compared to the same period of the previous year).  This coincided with an increase in working age clients, which usually results in an increase in demand for income support services and reduces MSD’s capacity for employment focused case management.