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Social Development Minister Anne Tolley is celebrating the number of people receiving a main benefit falling below 280,000 for the first time since 2008.
Beneficiary numbers fell by just over 4300 or 1.5 per cent in the year to March 2016.
Most of that came from those getting Sole Parent Support, which dropped 5.7 percent.
The largest annual decrease came from Auckland and Bay of Plenty, where Sole Parent Support numbers dropped 8.2 per cent and the total 8.3 percent.
From April 1 there has been an expectation that sole parents and partners of beneficiaries look for part-time work of 20 hours a week when their youngest child turns 3, instead of 5.
There were 42,091 Maori getting the jobseeker support benefit, or 35 percent of the total, compared with 45,526 Pakeha.
31,461 Maori were getting Sole Parent Support, 47 percent of the total, compared with just over 20,000 Pakeha.
Copyright © 2016, UMA Broadcasting Ltd: www.waateanews.com
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