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The Minister of Social Development officially opened the first Supported Teen Parent Home in Gisborne today, the last of seven to open around the country.

“We said we’d open seven supported homes for teen parents and it’s fantastic to celebrate this milestone with Te Aka Ora House,” says Ms Bennett.

Whoever it was that coined the phrase, ‘A good man is hard to find’ clearly had not met Gregory Fortuin and Kim Workman.

Today we are here to celebrate two very good men – men who have lived their lives in a way which is inspirational to us all.

Last night I released a pack of resources around whanau wellbeing including a set on becoming a Dad.   The key messages we were promoting are that becoming a father is easy, being a Dad isn’t.  

A good dad is someone who speaks openly and honestly with compassion. 

One of the greatest sources of celebration, of unity, of togetherness that we share, as peoples of Te Moana Nui a Kiwa, is the gift of song.

And so when I think of the concept of ‘E Tu’ to stand tall, I am inevitably drawn to the words of a waiata that our children are brought up on

E tu kahikatea , hei whakapae ururoa
Awhi mai awhi atu, tatou, tatou e.

Associate Minister for Social Development and Employment Tariana Turia has announced new resource materials to raise awareness about and address family violence been developed for Maori and Pasefika communities.

“These materials will reinforce activities already underway at the local level”, Minister Turia said.   “Local communities are leading the way in providing clear, consistent messages about building strong families and preventing and addressing family violence. These resources will help support that work”. 

Social Development Minister Paula Bennett joined Police, District Health Board and Ministry of Social Development representatives to sign a new agreement to strengthen child protection.

“A cross-government approach to child protection was a key recommendation of the Independent Experts Forum and this agreement is part of the Government’s continued work on those recommendations,” says Ms Bennett.

Social Development Minister Paula Bennett today said the National-led Government’s welfare reforms begin with a fresh approach to working with vulnerable and disengaged young people.

As part of a commitment to reducing long-term benefit dependency, the Government is working through the Welfare Working Group recommendations made earlier this year.

“Over the coming months, we’ll set out a clear direction for welfare reform and New Zealanders can expect a series of policy announcements, each with a focus on better opportunities,” says Ms Bennett.

Social Development Minister Paula Bennett says Future Focus changes implemented last September have saved taxpayers more than $6 million.

“The changes implemented last September as a pre-cursor to major reforms introduced clear obligations and greater fairness to the benefits system.”

Future Focus changes include requiring:
• Unemployment Beneficiaries to reapply if they remain on the benefit after a year and prove their eligibility to continue receiving assistance.
• DPB recipients with children over six to look for part-time work.

While the unemployment rate remains steady at 6.5%, more New Zealanders are in work this quarter says Social Development Minister Paula Bennett.

“We’re seeing a slowly strengthening and resilient labour market, with employment indicators very gradually improving.”

There are now more than 2,214,000 New Zealanders in work, with another 61,000 jobs created since 2009.

‘Some of the trends we’re seeing are more full-time jobs, more women in work, increasing wages and more hours for workers,” says Ms Bennett.

Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Minister Gerry Brownlee and Social Development and Employment Minister Paula Bennett have announced that temporary accommodation assistance is available for Cantabrians in the residential red zone.

From today Temporary Accommodation Assistance (TAA) will be available for Christchurch residents who own homes within the residential red zone.

“This will help earthquake-affected residents who’ve had to move out of their own home and have extra accommodation costs to cover,” says Mr Brownlee.

Social Development Minster Paula Bennett joined Sir Peter Gluckman, Green Paper Champions, MPs and the public in Aotea Square today to launch the Green Paper for vulnerable children.

“Too many children are being hurt, abused, neglected and badly let down but we can change this and now is time to act,” says Ms Bennett.

Social Development Minister Paula Bennett is delighted to announce three New Zealanders who will facilitate debate on the Green Paper on Children.

The Green Paper will be released on Wednesday 27 July at Aotea Square in Auckland at 1pm. It will then be available for consultation nationwide.

“I encourage New Zealanders to come to the rally and get the Green Paper.”

“It’s vital New Zealanders read this, talk about it with their communities, really understand the issues and say what they think,” says Ms Bennett.

Social Development Minister Paula Bennett has today publicly released a progress report on Fresh Start Youth Justice reforms.

“These reforms were only implemented eight months ago, so it is early days, but we’d like to provide some transparency about how they’re going.”

So far at least 1,150 young people have been provided with one or more of the new Fresh Start programmes or new orders.

Social Development Minister Paula Bennett says the Government has maintained a high priority on young people with a particular focus on employment.

“This Government has spent millions on upskilling young people, getting them work experience and that vital foot in the door with a first job,” says Ms Bennett.

Since 2009 the National-Led Government has invested $66 million in Job Ops, $57 million in Community Max, $44 million in the Limited Service Volunteer programme (LSV) and just over $17 million in Skills for Growth.

Social Development Minister Paula Bennett is pleased to welcome Janet Grossman as the new head of Work and Income.

Janet is taking up the role as Ministry of Social Development Deputy Chief Executive at a significant point in time.

“Work and Income have faced an extraordinarily big job since the 2009 recession and continue to work hard to help beneficiaries,” says Ms Bennett

“This is a big job and I’m confident Janet will quickly prove a valuable asset for Work and Income,” says Ms Bennett.

Associate Minister for Social Development and Employment, Hon Tariana Turia, says good progress is being made to implement the New Zealand Carers' Strategy and Five Year Action Plan.

“Carers are doing New Zealand a great service in supporting the person they care for in their daily life and enabling them to stay closely connected to their family and community. 

Our nation is indeed fortunate that despite the presssure they are under,  carers demonstrate such enduring commitment and resilience in supporting others”.

The number of New Zealanders on benefits has fallen for five months consecutively says Social Development Minister Paula Bennett.

“I’m delighted to see nearly 800 fewer people on Unemployment Benefits since May and 94% of that reduction is of young people,” says Ms Bennett.

It’s the first time that the Unemployment Benefit has decreased in the month of June for four years.

There are now 56,264 people on an Unemployment Benefit, that’s down from a high of 68,369 in January last year.

Social Development Minister Paula Bennett welcomed the release of the Addressing the Drivers of Crime progress report.

“Providing the right supports for at-risk children and young people is key to helping them see a future without crime,” says Ms Bennett.

“Children in care are seventeen times more likely to end up in jail, so we have to pull out all the stops to address health, education and behavioural needs.”

Social Development Minister Paula Bennett says community groups can now apply for the seventh round of the Community Response Fund.

“This funding is targeted at those social service providers still feeling the effects of a recession, combined with increased demand,” says Ms Bennett.

The CRF was established in May 2009 for two years to help social services deal with increased demand and cost pressures as a result of the recession. 

Since announcing Home for Life last August, Social Development Minister Paula Bennett says hundreds of children have found permanent homes.

“I’m thrilled to be able to say 329 children have gone out of State care into permanent, loving and stable homes as a result of Home for Life,” says Ms Bennett.

As at the end of June this year, 75 percent of those children have gone into homes with family or whanau.

For Maori the figure is even higher, with 85 percent having gone into permanent placements with whanau.

Social Development Minister Paula Bennett is delighted the Government‘s Gateway Assessments for children in care start rolling out this week.

“I’m incredibly proud of this initiative, it’ll make a real difference to the health and wellbeing of children who’ve had a rough start to life,” says Ms Bennett.

“Children come into care because of serious abuse and neglect and are most likely to have missed out on regular education and healthcare.”

There are thousands of New Zealand children growing up in state care.

Around four and a half thousand at any one time.

But thankfully, there are also thousands of people in this country who care enough to

care for and foster these children.

About 4,200 children were in the care of caregivers and foster parents in 2010.

Without these outstanding New Zealanders, Child Youth and Family residences would be the only option for our children in care.

Social Development Minister Paula Bennett has welcomed a new agreement between Fostering Kids and Child, Youth and Family signed today.

“It’s great to see the New Zealand Family and Fostercare Federation rebranded as Fostering Kids and working alongside CYF,” says Ms Bennett.

“Having the backing of a government department and the Minister will help strengthen and support the good work Fostering Kids do.”

Innovative programmes aimed at reducing youth offending have been awarded $730,000 says Social Development Minister Paula Bennett.

The third round of the Fresh Start Innovation Fund has been awarded to nine community providers with a history of working with youth.

“This funding will help community organisations try and change some of the behaviours of young people at risk of getting into more serious trouble,” says Ms Bennett.

“A key focus of the Fund is also to address the high numbers of young Māori within the youth justice system.”

Welfare reform is a controversial subject.

I think we can all agree on that.

Often controversy stems from emotive arguments from different sides of the debate.

So let’s meet in the middle with the facts.

The fact is that the current welfare system was designed in the 1930s.

It’s been tinkered and toyed with and is now a conglomeration of add-ons.

It’s a mess quite frankly and it’s time we had a really good look at tidying it up.