Monday, March 28, 2022

Another reason more people are welfare-dependent

In December 2017 123,039 people were on the Jobseeker benefit and 289,788 people were on any main benefit.

By December 2021 the respective numbers had risen to 187,989 and 368,172 - increases of 53 and 27 percent.

A just released MSD report which monitors the effectiveness of EA (Employment Assistance) interventions contains this graph:



The amount spent on EA interventions has steadily declined since 2016/17. Additionally, the values are not CPI adjusted.

And from the 'key results':
...the total level of expenditure in the effective and promising categories has decreased since the high point of 2013/2014 ($192.3 million). In the last four years the fall in effective expenditure was led by the reduction in spending on Training for Work and Flexi-wage (Basic/Plus)
Within the report there is further negative and positive news. This post simply highlights two broad findings.

Less is being spent on employment assistance, and what is being spent is less effective.