Login
Monthly Reporting
Unfortunately, because of further system issues we will not be able to publish the full December monthly and quarterly data and benefit factsheets on 5 February. We apologise for the delay.
However, we can provide the high-level numbers as at the end of December 2025, including number of people on working age benefits, Jobseeker Support, Jobseeker Support – Work Ready and Jobseeker Support – Health Condition or Disability. These high-level numbers have not been affected by the system issues we are currently experiencing.
The high-level data as at the end of December 2025 is:
- There were 427,236 people (or 13.2% of the working-age population) on a main benefit.
- There were 223,512 people (or 6.9% of the working-age population) on a Jobseeker Support (JS) benefit.
This includes 124,875 people on Jobseeker – Work Ready and 98,637 people on Jobseeker – Health Condition or Disability. - There were 7,104 people on a Jobseeker Support – Student Hardship benefit.
- There were 19,893 people who exited a main benefit into work in the quarter ending December 2025.
- There were 17,757 people who exited JS into work in the quarter ending December 2025.
We will provide an update on timing as soon as it is available. This will also delay data releases for the January and February monthly reports. We will provide updates once these release dates have been confirmed.
An overview of benefit and supplementary assistance data.
Latest Monthly Benefits Update release
Monthly Benefits Update - Data file
Release timetable
We will provide an update on timing as soon as it is available.
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.
Confidentiality - Random Rounding
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: