Chief Executive's foreword
The economic climate over the last year has been the worst we have experienced in over 60 years.
The recession has had a significant impact on the Ministry. Unemployment Benefit numbers increased 187 per cent during the year with even greater growth in youth unemployed. Demand for Student Loans and Allowances grew as people, who might have entered or stayed in the workforce, chose to enter or remain in tertiary education. Difficult economic times put pressure on families, increasing the need for care and protection, youth justice and community support services. Despite the primary challenges posed by this, the Ministry continues to deliver excellent service to New Zealanders.
We implemented the ReStart, Redundancy Support and Job Support Scheme to respond to the recession. ReStart gives temporary financial help and job search assistance to people immediately after they have been made redundant. Nearly 4,500 people have received ReStart assistance over the course of this year. Redundancy Support responds to business closures in regions. We are working with employers to get staff new jobs or training. The Job Support Scheme pays an allowance to workers, who agree to work reduced hours, and is available to employers with 50 or more staff. During the year we have executed contracts for the Job Support Scheme with 36 employers saving over 400 jobs.
Work and Income is achieving tremendous results. At the end of the year around one third of jobseekers were being exited into employment before entering the benefit system. In addition, even though benefit numbers are up, Work and Income continues to achieve job placement numbers well above those achieved before the recession. Despite increased pressure on budgets we have improved services to the public. We established seven Community Link Centres to provide integrated social services in key locations. We also enhanced electronic and web based services to increase the time case managers have to support clients.
StudyLink continues to streamline processes for students, making it easier for them to apply for, and receive payments online. The MyStudyLink online account service continues to be improved with new functions being added, such as the ability to apply for Course Related Costs, as well as Allowances and Loans, online. Online is now firmly established as StudyLink's primary service delivery channel. In 2008/2009 97 per cent of Student Allowance applications and 91 per cent of Student Loan applications were received online.
Child, Youth and Family are achieving good results for vulnerable children. Unallocated cases are the lowest they have ever been in the history of Child, Youth and Family. An unallocated case does not mean that nothing is being done to keep the child or young person safe. Child, Youth and Family have also helped more children into permanent care and worked with the Ministry of Health to appoint disability advisors to help to fully meet the needs of children and young people in our care with disabilities. All of these developments are helping to improve the lives of the children and young people, and the families Child, Youth and Family work with.
We're committed to delivering value for money and to ensure this, we have strong financial management. We have realised savings and efficiencies of $63 million during the last year, have ambitious plans to deliver a further $272 million in gains over the next three years, which are able to be applied to cost and volume pressures. We will continue with our strong focus on value for money in the coming years. During the year we reviewed resourcing to ensure we had enough staff in the right places to cope with demand pressures.
I am hugely proud of the way that staff from across the Ministry have responded to the challenges the year has thrown at us. The work that we have been doing has laid a solid platform to meet the needs of the Government, and New Zealanders who rely on our services, in coming years.
Peter Hughes
Chief Executive
30 September 2009
