ODT: 53,000 16-20 year-olds on a benefit

This must be a typo - a collosal one.

According to the ODT under the headline

Young on benefits targeted

Paula Bennett said,

''Our target of a 40% reduction of young people on benefit is a bold one but 53,000 young people aged between 16 and 20 on welfare is too many for a country with prospects like ours.''

I don't have exact comparable data but I do know that at March 2013  only 2,415 16-19 year-olds were on either a Youth or Young Parent Payment.

MSD benefit fact sheets show at June 2014 there were 49,889 18-24 year-olds on a benefit.

Some further digging turns up a different quote, this from Radio NZ:

At present, there are 53,000 people aged under 24 on the benefit and Ms Bennett said that can be reduced by 40 percent.

That makes more sense.

Readers of the ODT will be getting altogether the wrong impression. The bulk of the 53,000 referred to will be aged 21 and older.

(To be fair to the ODT it's possible the Minister gave them the wrong information. The quote is very specific.)