Sole Parent Support - December 2019 quarter

During the COVID-19 pandemic response, we are releasing a reduced amount of supporting material for the Benefit Fact Sheets and this page has not been updated with information from the latest quarter.

Sole Parent Support (SPS) is available for single parents whose youngest dependent child is under 14 years old, and who can look for or prepare for part-time work.

Five-year trend

As at the end of December 2019, there were 61,190 sole parents in receipt of Sole Parent Support, or 15.6 percent lower when compared with December 2014.

The proportion of the working-age population receiving SPS remained stable at two percent over the last two December quarters.

Annual comparison

The number of people in receipt of Sole Parent Support increased by 2.2 percent or 1,320 more people compared with December 2018.

Note 1: Working-age people are aged 18 to 64 years. This definition reflects the minimum age of eligibility for most main benefits and the age of qualification for New Zealand Superannuation.

Note 2: Percentage of working-age population is based on Statistics New Zealand’s national population estimate year ended June for relevant years (i.e. the population estimates as at June 2019 have been used for this quarter’s report).

Note 3: Annual changes are calculated from the exact values and are presented to the nearest one decimal point.

Note 4: Percentage of the working-age population and percentage of the working-age benefit population are shown as rounded figures, while the change between them is calculated from the exact values. The difference given may not correspond exactly with the difference between the percentages shown.