about youth service

Youth Service was established on 20 August 2012 and is a contracted service in which community-based providers are funded to work with unemployed or disengaged 16 to 19 year olds.

Youth Service is delivered across Aotearoa by our Youth Service providers, who are a mixture of community organisations, iwi/Māori, private training institutions and two in-house Work and Income providers in Wellington and Whanganui. Youth Service has over 300 youth coaches who deliver the service.

Youth Service providers have the external community networks and capability to work intensively with young people to equip them with the tools to support them to achieve their goals and aspirations. These interventions and activities are tailored to the needs of the young person that adopts a strengths-based, strong youth mentoring approach in their practice.

welfare reform

Stage one of welfare reform changes was the introduction of Youth Service. In August 2011, Cabinet agreed that Youth Service needs to:

discourage an early reliance on the benefit system
require young people to remain in education or training, or to be in work, in return for assistance
ensure that they learn good budgeting skills so that they are better able to manage their money, and have the strategies to cope when resources are limited
support the development of their parenting skills (teen parents only)
ensure that cost is not a barrier to children of teen parents accessing childcare
support teens to access services including, where appropriate, family planning services, to address a range of needs that will enhance longer-term outcomes
provide wrap-around support to improve social outcomes for young people and their children
introduce a sharing agreement between ministries to target school leavers.

The Youth Service Master Outcome Agreement sets out the performance and contractual requirements in achieving outcomes for young people.

The Youth Service provider website sets out the operational processes for the providers supporting young people enrolled in Youth Service.

young people receiving payments

Those in Youth Service who are eligible for a benefit:

receive Youth Payment or Young Parent Payment
have youth activity obligations (education, budgeting and, for parents – parenting) and can receive incentive payments where they meet these obligations
have their money managed by MSD with an associated sanctions regime, and
for young parents, receive additional support to cover childcare costs (Guaranteed Childcare Assistance Payment).

Youth Service supports 16 and 17 year old's who can't live with their family, be supported by them or anyone else as a result of exceptional circumstances such as family breakdown (YP), and 16-19 year old parents who are receiving financial assistance (YPP).

Youth Service also includes young partners and young parent partners of main beneficiaries. Young partners of a main beneficiary are identified as young people who are either aged 16 to 17 with no dependent child or children, or aged 16 to 19 with a dependent child or children.

Young partners receive a working age benefit (usually Jobseeker Support) and are referred to our Youth Service providers to meet their youth activity obligations.

neet (not in education employment or training)

Youth Service NEET is a voluntary service for young people who:

are 16 or 17 years old
are not receiving financial assistance from the Government
have a high or very high Service Level Intensity rating, and
need help to re-engage or remain in education, employment, or training.

How we work out Service Level Intensity ratings

Service Level Intensity ratings look at factors including: education level, reason for leaving school, and whether they have had contact with Oranga Tamariki.

This is supported by information sharing between government agencies including the Ministry of Social Development, the Ministry of Education and Oranga Tamariki. You can view the Approved Information Sharing Agreement on our Youth Service website.

about youth service