Supported Living Payment - 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.
Supported Living Payment (SLP) is available for people who have, or who are caring for someone with a health condition, injury or disability that severely limits their ability to work on a long-term basis.
Five-year trend
The number of working-age people receiving Supported Living Payment (SLP) remained stable. There were 93,594 working-age people in receipt of SLP as at the end of December 2019, or 273 people fewer than the December 2014 level.
The long-term nature of conditions of people on SLP means that very few people move from SLP into paid work or on to another benefit.
Figure 1 shows the total number of people receiving SLP, while Figure 2 presents the number of SLP recipients by benefit sub-group in the December quarters since 2014.
The proportion of the working-age population receiving Supported Living Payment gradually decreased to 3.1 percent as at the end of December 2019, from 3.4 percent in December 2014.
Annual comparison
As at the end of December 2019, the total number of Supported Living Payment recipients slightly increased by one percent, compared to the same period last year.
|
December 2018 |
December 2019 |
Annual change |
|
|---|---|---|---|
|
Number of Supported Living Payment recipients |
92,687 | 93,594 | 1.0 percent increase |
|
Number of Supported Living Payment – Health Condition and Disability recipients |
84,059 | 84,752 | 0.8 percent increase |
|
Number of Supported Living Payment – Carers recipients |
8,628 | 8,842 | 2.5 percent increase |
|
Percentage of working-age population receiving Supported Living Payment |
3.1% | 3.1% | No change |
|
Percentage of working-age main benefit population receiving Supported Living Payment |
31.0% | 29.8% | 1.2 percentage point decrease |
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. 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 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.
