Hon CARMEL SEPULONI (Minister for Social Development and Employment): As at the June quarter 2022, 8,388 people aged 18 to 24 had been receiving a jobseeker work-ready benefit for a year or more. There were also 4,995 jobseekers with a health and disability exemption. All up, this represents an 84 percent increase from September 2017. Of these, 2,553 young people had been on jobseeker work-ready benefit for two to three years in the June quarter, and 1,464 have a health and disability exemption. The total of 4,021 represents a 133.9 percentage increase from 2017. The numbers of young people receiving a jobseeker benefit for longer than a year has fallen 7.6 percent since the March 2022 quarter. Alongside this, we've seen a 56 percent increase in the number of young people moving off benefit and into work when comparing June 2017 to June 2022. This is record numbers of people moving into work. Since the pandemic began, we have seen increased numbers of young people applying for a jobseeker benefit and we have responded by increasing our investment into work-focused case management. Our response is working and numbers of people on benefit are falling each quarter.