• Benefits and Super Rise, Work-for-the-Dole Abolished
• Maharey, Unions Meet Over TEAC Report
• Unemployment Drop Predicted
• Supported Employment Trust
• Power Trust Dividends
• Waitakere Community Action Fund to Be Launched
• Third Sector Relationships

Benefits And Super Rise, Work-for-the-dole Abolished

Increased payments for beneficiaries, student allowance recipients, superannuiants and veterans and the abolition of the work-for-the dole scheme took effect from Sunday (April 1).

All benefits and superannuation receive a 3.98 percent inflation adjustment. The Government has also implemented a campaign promise to abolish the failed work-for-the-dole scheme. DWI is now gearing itself up for changes which take effect on 1 July and shift the emphasis away from make-work schemes to moving beneficiaries off welfare into real jobs paying real wages.

The increases will assist beneficiaries and superannuiants with recent cost of living increases and will also boost regional economies because the additional money will be spent locally.

With the formal abolition of the work-for-the-dole scheme DWI case managers have now been freed up to focus on getting beneficiaries into real jobs, paying real wages. Starting from 1 July DWI is introducing personalised Job Seeker Agreements. The Agreements will include training opportunities, work experience and other support which the Department agrees to provide and the obligations on job seekers to take up those opportunities.

Associate Education (Tertiary Education) Minister Steve Maharey met recently with Council of Trade Union President Ross Wilson and representatives from affiliated trade unions with members in the tertiary education sector to discuss the Tertiary Education Advisory Commission's second report which is currently open for consultation.

The meeting is part of a series of public consultation exercises involving the Minister and Commission members which were held over March. At a forum with Maori in Wellington last week, addressed by both Mr Maharey and Minister of Maori Affairs Parekura Horomia, the Commission also released a Maori translation of the summary report.

Public submissions on the report close with the Minister's office on April 7. The following week Mr Maharey has invited a representative from each of the peak bodies representing tertiary institutions and providers, staff and students, and business and employers to a round table discussion on the reaction of their sector to the report.

The Government is looking seriously at the Commission's proposals and wants to make decisions on them by the middle of the year.

New Zealand's unemployment rate seems set to continue tracking down over the intermediate period ahead, Social Services and Employment Minister Steve Maharey told a Christchurch public meeting on employment recently. While economists differed on employment projections, most were predicting moderate employment growth over the next two to three year period.

After the Government's first year in office:

• unemployment stands at 5.6%, down from 6.8% in September 1999;
• for the year ended December 2000 unemployment dropped by 9.2% (a decrease of 11,000 people);
• long term unemployment has decreased from 41,700 in December 1999 to 32,400 in December 2000;
• the total number of people employed has gone from 1,748,000 to 1,805,000; and,
• full time employment increased by 37,000 over the year from December 1999 to December 2000.

Potential roadblocks which could frustrate further job growth include a slowdown in the home economies of our major trading partners and skill shortages in some growth industries. However New Zealand's underlying economic fundamentals remain sound and job prospects for the long term unemployed - the group in which skills shortages are most likely to be concentrated - also improved over the last year.

While employment growth has been good, Mr Maharey said there are no grounds for complacency.

Social Services and Employment Minister Steve Maharey and Minister for Disability Issues Lianne Dalziel recently launched a trust aiming to provide supported employment in the mainstream workforce for people with disabilities in the Wellington region.

The EMERGE Trust was founded in March last year with the help of funding from the Department of Work and Income and is primarily concerned with the provision of supported employment for people with disabilities. It was formed by a small group of parents of children with disabilities, their friends, supporters and professionals in the field of supported employment.

The Ministers said people with disabilities have the right to the same employment opportunities as the rest of the population. Employment opportunities for people with disabilities are a key goal of the New Zealand Disability Strategy, which is to be launched shortly.

Dividend payouts by community owned power lines trusts, which have been worth between $520 and $1,060, will be able to be kept by beneficiaries and superannuiants who get supplementary benefits with no impact on their incomes, the Government has announced.

The Auckland Energy Consumer Trust is paying a $520 dividend to power account holders this month. Potentially this payment could affect the level of benefits and supplementary assistance received by approximately 100,000 beneficiaries and superannuiants living in its catchment area. Waipa Networks Trust and Mainpower Trust have already made $605 to $1,060 payments which will also be covered by the Ministerial Welfare Programme. Under current welfare rules these dividends are required to be included in income calculations, meaning some beneficiaries and superannuiants would see the level of benefits and supplementary payments paid to them cut.

Legislation is to be introduced later this year to exempt payments received from public utilities from treatment as income for social security purposes. In the meantime a Ministerial Welfare Programme is being established to ensure that beneficiaries and superannuiants who receive power trust dividends will be able to keep the one-off payments without any impact on their eligibility for income assistance.

The first of seven community pilots trialling the Government's Stronger Communities Action Fund is being launched this weekend. The communities will be directly funded and given responsibility for determining and purchasing the mix of social services appropriate to promote the well being of children and families in their area.

Ranui, a suburb in Waitakere City, is the first community to trial the scheme. The project is being coordinated by the Waitakere City Council. The Government believes partnership with local communities has great potential to significantly improve the quality and range of social services available to New Zealanders.

Community and Voluntary Sector Minister Steve Maharey discussed the strong value the Government places on a healthy relationship with the third sector in an address to the Otago Regional Labour Party conference at the weekend.

Mr Maharey said that civil society is the glue ? the network of connections - that binds communities together. The Government is committed to building and strengthening its relationship with the community and voluntary sector and has worked hard over the last year to address the dysfunctional state it had fallen into.

Key signals of the Government's intent included the appointment of the Community and Voluntary Sector Working who are due to report to the Minister shortly, and Mr Maharey's own appointment as the first Minister for the sector.

Mr Maharey also indicated that the Government was looking at compliance costs faced by the sector. It has been estimated that approximately 18% of contracted funds provided by Government are consumed in compliance activity. A project group established last September has been looking at improvements in funding practices. The project team, led by the Ministry of Social Policy, includes 13 social service delivery agencies, Treasury and the State Service Commission. The group is looking at a number of practical steps that can be taken to address the compliance problems faced by the sector. Discussion is also underway on new guidelines reflecting the Government's desire for a change in the way the contracting framework and funding arrangements are managed.