Just one in 100 beneficiaries who had pre-employment drug tests under a new government policy showed any sign of drug abuse.

'Cave' dwellers will officially get top priority for social housing under new rules that kicked in this week.

Editorial: The news that at least 21,000 beneficiaries have travelled overseas in the past nine months had a predictable response.

More than 21,000 beneficiaries have had their benefits cut for going on unapproved overseas trips in the last nine months.

Family disputes are problems to be professionally mediated rather than wars that will be won or lost.

Helpline services for smokers, gamblers and other groups are being merged into a new national "telehealth" service - possibly with a simple 111-style number.

Maori are living longer and their infant mortality rate will soon be the same as Pakeha - but they're still over-represented in poverty statistics.

New Zealand is still wasting its "demographic dividend" of young Maori and Pacific people reaching working age.

Gaps between New Zealand's main ethnic groups are closing for our youngest citizens - but remain deeply entrenched on many indicators for older children and adults.

Crime is at a 34-year low, incomes and employment are rising and teenage pregnancy has plunged, a new report on the state of our nation shows.

'We've been absolutely clear in all the materials.' David Cunliffe has defended against accusations he mislead the public over his $60 baby bonus.

Prime Minister John Key has accused Labour leader David Cunliffe of "misleading New Zealanders" over the $60-a-week child payment scheme.

Labour's $60-a-week child payment scheme may produce less work and more babies, economists say.

David Cunliffe's "baby bonus" is a nifty Trojan horse that will do more for Labour's chances than the usual politically inspired and euphemistically labelled "kissing babies" exercise, writes Fran O'Sullivan.

This election year there will be claim and counter-claim from National and Labour about whether the recovering economy is a rising tide that will lift all boats.

Words can hardly express the harm inflicted on a 9-year-old boy in Hamilton this week by someone who gave him enough alcohol to get very drunk.

The Prime Minister's reaction to the latest survey of child poverty was predictable but misguided. It is not just about jobs.

In a UK first, shoppers in South Yorkshire are being offered food at up to 70 per cent of normal prices - but they have to prove they're on benefits to get the bargains.

The Government is looking at putting some teenagers who are already supported by welfare benefits into a flatting situation with a live-in mentor to prevent them going off the rails.

Editorial: Mayor Len Brown's pursuit of a policy that would see the Auckland Council pay the "living wage" to its staff has drawn a variety of objections.

Almost 13,000 parents with dependent children have had their benefits cut for failing work tests in the first 2 years after sole parents first had to look for work.

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

Nearly 100 beneficiaries on the run from police have had their welfare cut in the six weeks since the policy was introduced, says Social Development Minister Paula Bennett.

Let's start with the numbers. They aren't mine. They come from a recently published Ministry of Social Development "factsheet".

A caregiver who admitted defrauding the benefit system of more than $274,000 says she did it because she "believed that she was two separate people".

Just over half of voters support extending Working for Families in-work tax credits of at least $60 a week to beneficiaries.

When Robin Vinod turned 17, he couldn't sign a tenancy agreement or be responsible for bills - but that was when CYF left him to fend for himself.