Work matters, people count - our description
Work and Income is here to help all New Zealanders find and keep jobs.
Our purpose
Achieving sustainable employment and social connectedness and inclusion for New Zealanders drives everything that we do. It is the reason Work and Income is here and it is our contribution towards improving the lives of individuals, children, their families and communities.
Our role
Work and Income is a service line in the Ministry of Social Development. We will work with every New Zealander in their lifetime and our services impact over one million people every year. Our accessibility is our asset. Our people are part of almost every community in New Zealand and we are in almost every town, with over 140 centres nationwide.
Our contact and service centres are the first point of entry for New Zealanders needing income support, additional assistance to work, help getting a job or finding staff. We work on a large scale, paying up to $14 billion in financial assistance, case managing over 280,000 people a year, supporting 63,000 people into work and processing up to one million applications for additional assistance.
Our five contact centres take over 120,000 calls a week in 12 languages. We pay over 70,000 non beneficiaries through Working for Families. These numbers are growing rapidly. We also have a great many interactions with people who are not yet or who may never be on our register.
We are part of a very large network across the social sector at every level – within our Ministry, across Government Organisations and within the community.
How it all fits together
working together – as part of the sector
We recognise the importance of our other agencies such as Health, ACC, Labour, Education, Justice and the community sector. We are all committed to working toward our common goals.
working together – as part of the ministry
We work alongside our colleagues in Students, Seniors and Integrity Services, Family and Community Services and Child, Youth and Family. Added to the strong support of the Ministry’s policy shops and corporate functions, we are part of a Ministry network with a great deal of expertise and resources.
We have greater strength to make a difference when we work together as the greater Ministry.
As part of the Ministry, we benefit hugely from the thought leadership, policy support and infrastructure of a large organisation. In return, we make a significant contribution to the Ministry achieving its priorities by achieving our priorities. These are sustainable employment, social connectedness and inclusion. Put simply, we want all of our jobseekers to prepare for work and get a job that lasts. If this is not possible, we want everyone who can, to play a part in their own community.
working with the people who need it
We work across the social sector to provide assistance to those who need it alongside everyone who can provide it. On behalf of the Ministry, it is our sole responsibility to provide New Zealanders with income support and additional assistance to get back on their feet.
We also provide programmes, services and financial assistance.
We deliver some of these programmes ourselves. We also contract out around $192 million a year to Non-Government Organisations and other agencies. This is for services that are more effectively or efficiently delivered by the communities themselves.
A scenario for success
I’m Bronwyn, I manage the Work and Income side of the Community Link team in our town. Five government agencies and four Non-Government Organisations have teamed up to provide assistance to those in our community who need support, some of them have co-located in our office to provide better and easier access for us and the people we work with. It is great because you only need to tell your story once and many of your needs can be met simply through one joined up approach – even those people who have more complex needs. Needs are identified easier and once identified the key agencies or Non-Government Organisations wrap around to meet their needs in an integrated way. We are all learning so much from one another and we have found we have so much in common particularly our common goal of achieving positive results for the people we work with.
More and more Non-Government Organisations are feeling included and our contracting relationships have improved. It means we can provide a far better service, faster and using less money. My staff are enjoying doing more of what they do best, making a difference in people’s lives and working across the community. That we’re making new friends in the process is a bonus.
Our environment
Since Work and Income began, we have adapted to significant changes to our environment
including:
- most recently, a global financial downturn and credit crisis predicated by
- the longest period of sustained economic growth and a period of tightened labour market conditions and significant skills shortages
- lower wage increases in comparison to other OECD countries and high churn through low paid job areas
- increased government focus toward reprioritisation rather than new funding
- shifts in the age and ethnic make-up of New Zealand.
While we know that levels of unemployment are forecast to double over the next year, the following diagram shows the make-up of the people on our register:
Our journey - where we have come from
Since 1998, we have worked to bring our employment and income support services together as a continuum from income assistance to sustainable employment. From that point, case management has been the key to delivering an integrated service with the same person.
Our journey so far
Our approach
Interacting with us is now very different than in the past. Today, across New Zealand, people who need help typically first approach us either by ringing our freephone contact centre, or walking into one of our service centres. A first appointment is set up within three days, or within 24 hours for an emergency.
