Tuesday, December 04, 2012

Student allowances - almost 100,000

The statistics for 2011 have just been released and student allowance recipients for 2011 reached 97,308. That's an increase of 41,757 since 2005 or 75 percent. I think of student allowances as benefits even though they come out of the Ministry of Education budget. After all, if they weren't on a student allowance many would be on  the dole.

Looking at the allowances in the context of unemployment, in 1991 unemployment peaked at 11 percent. In that year 72,479 students received an allowance. The population  was smaller then but not by much with respect to the relevant demographic.

In 1991 the 15-24 population was 556,000.
In 2011 it was 644,000.

(Of course not all student allowance recipients fall into that age group but most do.)

On the face of it the ratio of young people receiving a student allowance to the unemployment rate is higher today.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

if they weren't on a student allowance many would be on the dole

if they are on "student allowance" they are on the dole - indeed doubly on the dole because "student loans" are yet another dole.

all this - and every other dole should be terminated forthwith

Anonymous said...

I do not believe the student allowance should be cut. Changing the rules halfway through a medical degree is harsh. This should have been grand-parented. My concern is that their are going to people that will be left with a huge debt and nothing to show for it in areas that NZ is short of. If it was grand-parented.