Weekly Reporting
On this Page:
An overview of income support and hardship assistance, delivered each week by the Ministry of Social Development.
The data file provides the figures used to produce the Income Support Weekly Update and includes timeseries data on main benefits, Jobseeker Support by Regional Council, and other selected data cuts.
Latest Income Support Weekly Update releases
The Income Support Weekly Updates will no longer be published following the 25 October release. An overview of income support and hardship assistance will continue to be published as part of the Monthly Benefits Update.
Income Support Weekly Update - A3
Income Support Weekly Update - Data file
How we report ethnicity
From December 2021, we introduced a new reporting approach called ‘total response’. Making this change means that we recognise all aspects of someone’s ethnicity and allows us to represent the full diversity of communities, whānau, and people in Aotearoa. This reflects our clients more accurately, aligns our approach with Statistics NZ’s reporting, and reflects best practice.
Ethnicity is about people’s identity and sense of belonging. Ethnicity measures cultural affiliation, rather than race, ancestry, nationality, or citizenship. Ethnicity is self-perceived and people can identify with more than one ethnic group. Previously, we reported ethnicity using an approach called ‘prioritised ethnicity’. Prioritised ethnicity meant that we allocated people to a single ethnic group in an order of priority. The priority previously used by MSD was Māori, Pacific Peoples, Other, and NZ European.
Protecting client information - confidentiality
From 12 February 2021, MSD started applying a range of new confidentiality procedures to public data releases. These procedures will continue to protect client information, while making more data available. To find out how we have changed the way we work with client information, please visit:
