Appendix – Services we provide
Income support and superannuation services:
- Benefits
- Other financial support (for people in or outside the benefit system)
- Retirement income (in particular New Zealand Superannuation)
- Accommodation-related financial support
- Student financial support (via StudyLink)
- Child-related benefits.
Employment services and support:
- Connecting clients to employers and job opportunities
- Upskilling clients through industry-based recruitment partnerships
- Responding to local labour market conditions by working with local employers and industry partners through our regional employment teams
- Supporting rangatahi to gain the skills they need to work and have an independent future.
Housing support services:
- Assessing people’s eligibility for, and assisting them with access to emergency, transitional and public housing
- Providing grants and recoverable assistance to help with housing costs.
Designing and delivering community services in conjunction with others:
- Supporting victims, survivors and perpetrators of family violence and sexual violence
- Growing leadership within communities to address family violence
- Reducing the isolation, abuse and neglect of older people
- Building people’s financial capability and resilience
- Ensuring refugee and migrant communities can participate in local initiatives
- Supporting community providers to develop their capability.
We provide a range of services to the Government to enable the welfare system, including:
- advice to Ministers on a wide range of social policy issues, such as the welfare overhaul work programme, income support, employment programmes, active labour market policies, housing-related social assistance, support for children and rangatahi, retirement income, social policy issues relevant to seniors and disabled people, social sector policy initiatives, regional development and governance, and our international obligations
- co-ordinating the whole-of-government approach to strengthening social cohesion, which is part of the Government’s response to the recommendations from the Report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the terrorist attack on Christchurch Masjidain in March 2019
- protecting the integrity of the welfare system by minimising errors, client debt and fraud, and managing the collection of overpayments and recoverable assistance loans
- providing requested information and preparing for hearings of the ‘Royal Commission of Inquiry into Historical Abuse in State Care and in the Care of Faith-based Institutions’ and supporting the Crown secretariat
- assessing and resolving claims of abuse and neglect for people who were under the supervision of, in the care, custody or guardianship of, or who had come to the notice of the State before April 2017
- co-ordinating the Care in the Community welfare response under the COVID-19 Protection Framework
- responding to adverse and crisis events, such as floods, droughts and earthquakes
- monitoring three Crown entities [1] and providing advice to the responsible Minister
- leading Connected, a central place for information from the New Zealand Government relating to Employment, Education and Training.
We work with others to deliver effective welfare services and other social service functions, including:
- working with Inland Revenue to deliver Working for Families tax credits to people on benefits and COVID-19 business supports to qualifying employers and self-employed people
- participating in cross-government initiatives, including:
- working with hapū and iwi towards improving outcomes for Māori
- co-leading two workstreams under the Child and Youth Wellbeing Strategy
- contributing as a member of several cross-agency groups, including the Social Wellbeing Board, the Digital Government Leadership Group, the Government Health and Safety Lead, and the Joint Venture for Family Violence and Sexual Violence
- sponsoring We Enable Us, an all-of-government disabled employees’ network in the public sector
- strengthening oversight of the Oranga Tamariki system including independent monitoring
- supporting place-based initiatives (including playing a lead role in the Tairāwhiti region)
- accrediting social service providers contracted by partner agencies [2], managing Core Worker Exemptions and Social Worker Registration non-compliance.
Footnotes:
1. The Office of the Children’s Commissioner, Peke Waihanga (New Zealand Artificial Limb Service), and the Social Workers Registration Board.
2. Oranga Tamariki, the Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Housing and Urban Development, Ministry for Pacific Peoples, and Ara Poutama Aotearoa (Department of Corrections).
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