WELLINGTON - Nearly one in three adults received a welfare benefit in the first four months of this year.
Work and Income New Zealand figures show that 880,268 people, or 31.5 per cent of the estimated population aged 18 years and older, received some sort of benefit between January 1 and April 30.
Social Services Minister Steve Maharey said about half of those people were superannuitants. But the number of other beneficiaries was something the Government wanted to tackle.
Benefits paid between January 1 and April 30 cost $3.74 billion, an increase of $39 million on the corresponding period last year. But the money went to 1 per cent fewer beneficiaries.
The Government aimed to reduce the number further by simplifying the benefit system.
Mr Maharey hoped to introduce a core benefit that would be topped up with incentive payments.
Act social welfare spokeswoman Muriel Newman said Mr Maharey was dreaming if he thought the changes would fast-track people into work.
By making things easier for beneficiaries, a lot more would choose not to take tougher options such as working.
She attributed this year's decrease in beneficiary numbers to an improvement in the economy caused by the previous Government's policies.
- NZPA
Benefit numbers worry Government
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