Unemployment at 24-year low

Unemployment benefit numbers have dropped to under 40,000 for the first time since 1982, Work and Income figures show.

The department's quarterly figures show that at the end of June, 39,572 people were registered as unemployed.

Social Development Minister David Benson-Pope said the last time the figures were below 40,000 was in 1982.

Mr Benson-Pope said the figure, down from 161,000 when Labour took office, represented a drop of 75 per cent.

But Opposition parties have highlighted strong growth in the numbers of people receiving sickness and invalid benefits.

Latest figures show those beneficiaries total around 122,000 -- about 50 per cent higher than in 1999.

But Mr Benson-Pope said that did not show people were simply moving off the unemployment benefit on to other benefits.

Overall since 1999 the combined number of people receiving unemployment, sickness, invalid's and domestic purposes benefits (DPB) had fallen from 372,000 to 280,000.

Mr Benson-Pope said the rise in sickness and invalid beneficiary numbers appeared to be levelling off with growth of just 2.7 per cent in 2005.

Unemployment had dropped 22 per cent in the past year and the number of people receiving the DPB had dropped by 5 per cent.

He said the figures were a milestone for the Government.

"Since the Government took office in 1999, we've supported people to take charge of their lives and take up opportunities.

"We've proved that supportive, not punitive, policies are the right way to go."

In recent days Mr Benson-Pope has called for officials to identify "clusters" of long-term beneficiaries for extra attention, but denied the approach was punitive.

He has also ruled out taking greater control of some beneficiaries' finances.

That followed a call from National Maori Urban Authority head and former Labour MP John Tamihere that Maori welfare organisations should be given the power to manage the finances of beneficiaries with a poor track record.

National welfare spokeswoman Judith Collins has also floated the idea of welfare smart cards for beneficiaries with substance abuse problems, or where there were concerns they were not looking after children properly.

Under the scheme part of someone's benefit would be put on to the card which could be used to purchase selected items at supermarkets.

Ms Collins has stressed that National is investigating the idea and it was not yet party policy.

- NZPA