File photo: Getty ImagesA record nearly 400,000 people are on some form of benefit - almost the same proportion of the population as after the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) - and there's a warning that number will increase before it falls again.
It showed the proportion of the working age population receiving a main benefit lifted to 12 percent, or 391,224 people, up 0.6 percentage points from September 2023.
On 31 March, 1952, there were just two people receiving the unemployment benefitInfometrics chief forecaster Gareth Kiernan said the different make-up of the benefit numbers was probably due to the benefit reforms of 2013.
"It's fluctuated from the record lowest level ever of unemployment back to what is slightly above where we'd like to see it.
An increase in the number of people on the benefit for health and disability reasons highlighted changes that had happened "behind the scenes", he said.

Record number of people now on benefit