The impacts we are looking to make to achieve this outcome
The impacts we are looking to make to achieve this outcome are:
- improving awareness of and access to support
- improving equity of outcomes
- improving people’s trust and confidence in the welfare system
- improving effectiveness of support
- reducing the number of people in hardship or insecure housing.
Our purpose Manaaki tangata, Manaaki whānau keeps people at the centre of what we do. We have developed or are developing a number of specific strategies to help us focus on taking a client- and whānau-centred approach to our work, including Te Pae Tawhiti, Te Pae Tata, and Pacific Prosperity [13] . In 2018/19 we helped to ensure New Zealanders get the support they require (whether financial support, a warm, dry and secure home, or other services) against a background of rising benefit numbers, increased demand for hardship assistance, and unfavourable housing supply and affordability issues.
At 30 June 2019, 1.25 million people were receiving direct financial support. We spent more than $26 billion on providing financial support to New Zealanders through benefits, New Zealand Superannuation, housing assistance and student allowances. This year we have seen a significant increase in demand for hardship assistance, and we’ve paid out nearly 1.7 million grants worth $480 million, an increase of about 500,000 and $150 million on the previous year. While a large proportion of the increase is related to housing assistance, there was a flow-on effect to other forms of hardship assistance.
Our role in public housing changed from October 2018 with the establishment of the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development. We work closely with both the new Ministry and the Housing New Zealand Corporation (HNZC) to ensure people have access to secure housing. However, the Public Housing Register has grown by about 300 percent over the past five years. Much of this growth is due to supply constraints – the Housing New Zealand stock is at 95 percent capacity and fewer people are moving out of the public housing system.
This year we granted over 70,000 Emergency Housing Special Needs Grants (132 percent up on a year ago) totalling nearly $93 million (up 185 percent) to 12,364 clients (up 49 percent).
Demand for emergency and transitional housing assistance has increased because of the high costs of housing in relation to household income, limited new housing supply, and a lack of affordable rental options. We focused on providing people with a positive experience whenever they approach us. It is our responsibility to ensure that New Zealanders get the support they require, and it is also our responsibility to ensure that our clients understand what services they are entitled to and how we can support them. This is articulated in our strategic shift mana manaaki (a positive experience every time). We started to provide clients with proactive assistance and reminders about things they need to do, and made it easier for people to access the support they need and to manage some things for themselves. We improved the look and feel of our office spaces and our service culture.
Footnotes
[13] The client- and whānau-centred approach is also reflected in cross-government programmes such as the Carers’ Strategy and the Disability Action Plan.
