A new national service looks ready to start next year to make sure every 16 or 17-year-old ends up in work or training after leaving school.

Never mind the cheaper carrots, try a few workouts instead.

Public service job numbers have continued to fall.

Work and Income officials have selected just over a tenth of the country's 43,000 sole-parent beneficiaries with no children under 6 to be the guinea pigs for a work-testing scheme starting today.

A complaint by Paula Bennett over a news item which claimed she offered money to a solo mum is to go ahead.

Christchurch mayor Bob Parker says the city has moved from a state of emergency "to a state of urgency" and significant problems remain.

Twenty-three people have reportedly been evicted from quake-damaged council flats without warning.

The first round of quake-affected businesses signed up to the Government's wage assistance package will see money in the bank tomorrow.

Finance Minister Bill English has asked banks and the Inland Revenue Department to be flexible with Christchurch earthquake victims.

Two former sex workers who have been without an income since a six-month job scheme ended on May 21 were granted unemployment benefits yesterday.

Police have been called in after a Govt "sting" of secondhand appliance dealers found some allegedly conniving with beneficiaries to deceive Work and Income.

The number of young people aged 20 to 24 with no income almost trebled between 1996 and 2006, according to new figures.

Winz staff told a woman with a university bachelor degree to "dumb down" her CV before applying for jobs.

Winz has started bumping people off the invalids benefit, months before new work tests officially come into force, beneficiary advocates say.

An ex-gangster's wife has admitted using documents to dishonestly claim $12,000 from taxpayers.