A major law change which will introduce compulsory security screening of up to 376,000 people working with children has been unanimously backed in Parliament.

Crusading doco-maker Bryan Bruce returns to TV screens this week to claim that New Zealand's middle class is subsidising the rich and the poor through a terrible tax burden.

The amount fines and reparations owed has dropped to the lowest level in almost a decade.

Funding for talk therapy is drying up just as increasing numbers of Kiwis are feeling comfortable talking about their problems.

An Auckland teenager who has spent much of his life in state care is warning poor quality caregivers are responsible for filling our jails with criminals.

A doctor's certificate is often a ticket to social welfare. From this week it becomes a recipe for work. At least - that's the hope.

Mentally ill people will be moved off state-funded benefits and into work using private employment agencies who will earn hefty fees for the service.

A drug and alcohol educator says P-making chemicals are often stored in food and drink containers, within reach of unsuspecting children.

People who apply for a state house may be directed instead to a charitable housing provider under a bill introduced in the wake of this week's Budget.

A state house with 19 people living in it has been identified as one of the homes receiving more than $100,000 in taxpayer-funded benefits each year.

The couple alleged to be at the centre of a $375,000 benefit scam can be named for the first time.

From drug-dealing grannies with a penchant for diamond rings to white collar fraudsters, those who profit from crime are in the crosshairs of police.

A couple alleged to have ripped off taxpayers to the tune of $375,000 in Work and Income payments have been allowed to keep their names secret for now.

A couple are alleged to have ripped off taxpayers by hundred of thousands of dollars in welfare payments for dental treatments that never happened.

An advocacy service helping beneficiaries, believed to be the only one of its kind in Auckland, may have to shut after running for 22 years, following a cut in government funding.

Paula Bennett's reputation for being tough on beneficiaries is in jeopardy as figures reveal record high numbers on state financial support.

The number of sole parents on the domestic purposes benefit dropped by 5000 last year - a drop Social Development Minister Paula Bennett is attributing partly to her new policy requiring sole parents to get jobs when their youngest child turns five.

To be a truly free and democratic society there must be respect for the autonomy of individuals, writes Tim McBride. and limits on the activities of both state and private agencies which may intrude on that autonomy.

A government employee who was sacked after she accessed client records of Facebook 'friends' has won her job back until a full hearing can be held next year.

Privacy Commissioner Marie Shroff has described the Ministry of Social Development as a "megastore of personal details" which needs to lift its game to ensure confidence in the public sector is not harmed.

The Ministry of Social Development is set to roll out new public computers from May next year to replace the kiosks closed after a security hole was revealed in October.

Two important points appear to be missing from the debate about child poverty.

Social Development Minister Paula Bennett says she left a meeting with hunger striker Sam Kuha with respect for the man and his passion for the problem of child poverty.

An eighty-three-year-old's theft of almost $215,000 in benefit payments was only uncovered when she was seriously injured in a crash with a fuel tanker.