Extra 300 staff hired to deal with dole numbers

The dole queue lengthened by another 4417 people last month, forcing the Government to hire an extra 300 Work and Income staff to cope with the growing numbers.

Social Development Minister Paula Bennett said the Government had given Work and Income an extra $17.2 million to hire 303 new staff, under an agreement with Social Development Ministry head Peter Hughes that he would get more staff when unemployment benefit numbers passed 60,000.

The deal will offset some of the 200 job losses announced in a ministry restructuring plan in June, although not all of those made redundant then will be in the right places for the new jobs.

Ms Bennett said 126 of the 303 new jobs would be in Auckland, where 104 new workers had been recruited.

She said numbers on the unemployment benefit rose from 50,855 at the end of June to 55,272 on July 31, up from just 20,546 in July last year.

A third of those on the dole are aged 18 to 24.