Social Development Minister Paula Bennett is naturally happy to attribute a big reduction in the state's welfare liability to the Government's efforts.

Of 8,001 beneficiaries sent for jobs requiring drug testing, only 22 tested positive or refused to take tests, a result that has been greeted as a victory by the Social Development Minister.

NZ's child abuse rates are higher than anyone ever realised, officials admit, after bureaucrats bungled the numbers for more than two years.

New powers allowing welfare officials to secretly approach beneficiaries' banks or workplaces if they suspected them of committing fraud are being questioned.

Fast-food giant McDonald's has been paid $272,000 by the Government to help unemployed people get back to work.

Former residents of a home for troubled kids have launched a $500,000 lawsuit against the Govt for claims of physical and sexual abuse.

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.

Prisoners in privately run Mt Eden Corrections Facility were able to access the internet through faulty computer kiosks a security review of public sector computer systems has found.

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.

Two people will appear in court in Auckland tomorrow charged over a benefit fraud involving up to $375,000.

An immigration fraudster stripped of his citizenship and barred from New Zealand owes taxpayers more than $150,000.

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.