This is by no means the full extent as records only go back to 1993. Most single parents currently on welfare, who started on welfare under twenty, started on an unemployment benefit - not the DPB. If income support is required during pregnancy, the sickness benefit applies.
When I updated this figure in December 2006 it had climbed to 39,259. Back in 1999 the figure was 17,723. Get the picture?
3 comments:
I don't know what all the various benefit abbreviations are - but I assume those starting with DPB are the solo parent ones.
So are the figures saying that only a little over 2,000 people go straight onto a solo parent benefit? Nearly 37,000 out of 39,000 are already on another benefit of some kind?
Wow...
Good statistics, thanks Lindsay. There were 103,362 working aged people on the DPB in 2006 so 37% received a benefit under the age of 20. But the total percentage of working age people on the DPB in 2006 who are between 18-19 is relatively low - 2.8%.(http://www.msd.govt.nz/media-information/benefit-fact-sheets/index.html)
Since such a high ratio were on a benefit, you have to wonder if instilling some kind of work ethic for people on benefits under 20 wouldn't reduce the number of people that end up on the DPB. Something like a bootcamp for under 20s unemployed.
Gloria
Gloria, now 39 percent that we know of. There will also be a percentage who started on welfare pre-1993 but they cannot be identified. I think it would be safe to estimate the real number is close to half.
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