DPB 'reform' results stalled

If I was Ruth Dyson I would be looking at the newly released March benefit fact sheets and worrying.

The invalid benefit numbers have reached a new high of 81,130 - a 6 percent increase in one year. I expected this due to no mention of this benefit during the Labour Congress welfare skite.

But in some ways, even more worrying is that the results of great DPB reforms - personal work and development plans and WFF - seemed to have stalled. Again many of those centres with high young Maori and Pacific populations have seen rises and the overall decrease is only 1.3 percent or an average of 9 people fewer per centre since March 2007.

Add to this Treasury are predicting no further decrease in DPB numbers over the next few years.

A government truly wanting to get DPB numbers down will have to be far more radical than Labour or National.