Indicators help us understand our progress towards achieving our outcomes, impacts and key shifts - Annual Report 2019/20
These indicators were introduced in 2018/19, and their current and historical performance results and trends are shown below.
These indicators do not have fixed targets, but are designed to show the direction in which we would like to see results head over time. We expect them to evolve over time as we develop new and improved ways to measure what we think is important, including what we currently cannot measure but would like to.
The results we have seen so far are helping to establish baselines on which we can measure progress in future years. Results in general indicate that performance is not yet following the desired direction of travel for most indicators. However, we are reporting a positive result for the first annual Client Net Trust Score.
Performance this year was significantly affected by the need to divert resources at short notice to providing the rapid delivery of the COVID-19 income support response.
|
Impact indicator |
Link to Outcomes [1] |
Desired trend |
2016/17 |
2017/18 |
2018/19 |
2019/20 |
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|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Percentage of clients who remain off main benefit having secured sustainable work [2] |
1, 2, 3 |
(Up) |
70.6% |
69.3% |
67.7% |
65.2% |
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|
Percentage of clients exiting main benefit who return to main benefit (within 13 weeks): |
1, 3 |
(Down) |
22.4% |
25.0% |
24.2% |
26.0% |
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|
Percentage of clients exiting main benefit who return to main benefit (within one year): |
1, 3 |
(Down) |
50.5% |
50.4% |
52.4% |
52.8% |
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|
COVID-19 has impacted our ability to improve these measures. The strength of the labour market contributes to the ease and speed with which people find and stay in work. Labour market disruption dueto COVID-19 has meant that a smaller proportion of those who have left benefit for employment have remained off benefit for a significantperiod (six months), and more people than usual have come onto benefit. However overall exits from benefit into work have increased compared with last year. |
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|
Impact indicator |
Link to Outcomes [1] |
Desired trend |
2016/17 |
2017/18 |
2018/19 |
2019/20 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Average future years on benefit [3] |
1, 3 |
(Down) |
10.8 years |
10.6 years |
10.6 years |
11.6 years |
|
A number of factors have contributed to the increase in median time-to-house indicators. In particular:
This year the results were exacerbated by the impact of COVID-19. During the nationwide Level 4 lockdown period (and to a lesser extent in Level 3) clients were unable to move into new public housing, and time-to-house indicators worsened for these clients. It was only at Level 2 that the flow into public housing began to accelerate. |
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| Impact indicator | Link to outcomes [1] | Desired trend | 2016/17 | 2017/18 | 2018/19 | 2019/20 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Percentage of our spend evaluated as effective [4] (of the portion of our spend that we are able to evaluate) |
1, 2, 3 |
(Up) |
81.7% |
81.9% |
79.8% [5] |
82,7% [6] |
|
The percentage of spend evaluated as effective is measured across two categories of the multi-category appropriation Improved Employment and Social Outcomes Support: Improving Employment Outcomes and Improving Work-readiness Outcomes. While the percentage of spend evaluated as effective in the Improving Employment Outcomes category increased in 2019/20, the Improving Work-readiness Outcomes category did not achieve its performance target (see pages 163 and 164 of the PDF version of the report). This has resulted in the lower overall percentage shown here. |
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|
Impact indicator |
Link to outcomes [1] |
Desired trend |
2016/17 |
2017/18 |
2018/19 |
2019/20 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Customer satisfaction [7] |
1 |
(Up) |
82.6% |
81.6% |
81.8% |
- |
|
Client net trust score |
1 |
(Up) |
|
|
|
+43.2 |
|
We sent out 830,699 surveys and received 71,133 responses (a response rate of 8.6%) incorporating 150,086 comments [8]. This year’s Client Net Trust Score does not represent a full year of surveying as no surveys were sent out after 24 March 2020 due to COVID-19. The decision to pause surveys was made to reduce any unnecessary impact on our clients at an already stressful time. |
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Footnotes
- Outcome 1: New Zealanders get the support they require
Outcome 2: New Zealanders are resilient and live in inclusive and supportive communities
Outcome 3: New Zealanders participate positively in society and reach their potential. - A sustained outcome is where a client has not returned to a main benefit 26 weeks after exiting for work. Return to text
- The number of years, on average, for which people receiving a benefit at 30 June in the respective year are expected to be supported by a benefit over the remainder of their working lives. The key driver in predicting the average future years on benefit (the future years projection) is how people move into, through and out of the benefit system: for example, if it is harder for people to exit the benefit system then, all else being equal, the future years projection will increase. Several factors can influence how people move through the benefit system, including:
- changes in the labour market, such as forecast unemployment rates - all else being equal, increases in current and forecast unemployment rates will lead to increases in predicted future years on main benefit. This is because those supported by a benefit will typically find it harder to find employment and, once they do, are more likely to cease employment if unemployment is high
- policy and operational settings, for example successful programmes that help clients move to sustainable employment can reduce predicted future years on main benefit
- demographic changes – if, for example, the proportion of clients who have a relatively low future years projection increases then the overall future years projection will decrease. If the proportion of clients supported by a benefit who are young increases then, all else being equal, the future years projection will also increase as young clients have a longer working lifetime remaining
- methodology changes - every year, the models that predict future time on benefit are improved with new data and modelling techniques that help us understand more about how people transition through the benefit system. These can impact the future years projection. The exact impact will depend on the particular change. Return to text
- The effectiveness of our spend is based on whether employment interventions such as training or wage subsidies increase the time participants have higher income, spend more time in employment and/or less time in corrections services and welfare assistance, and gain higher qualifications. Return to text
- Historical data has been updated due to an error in the analysis that incorrectly excluded recent participant cohorts. Return to text
- The result reported against each year refers to the evaluation of spending two years previously; that is, the 2019/20 result refers to spending in 2017/18, and so on. Return to text
- Up to 2018/19 we reported customer satisfaction results from the former Service Quality Monitor survey, as outlined in our 2018–2022 Statement of Intent, while we have been developing and testing a true Client Net Trust indicator. From 2019/20 we have started to report a true Client Net Trust Score on a continuum from -100 to +100, where any score above 0 is considered a positive result. Return to text
- Surveys contain opportunities to provide comments as well as ratings for questions. It is possible to provide multiple comments per survey response. Return to text
