The Social Wellbeing Agency has today published two research reports that create a picture of the nature of debt held by New Zealanders to government.
The Social Wellbeing Agency analysed data in the Integrated Data Infrastructure (IDI) looking at people that hold debt to the Ministry of Social Development (MSD), Ministry of Justice (MoJ), and Inland Revenue (IR), or to two or all of these agencies. The reports, Patterns across debt and debtors to government, and Understanding debt and debtors to government (working paper), conclude that:
This work has been delivered by the Social Wellbeing Agency to a cross-sector group of government agencies considering the issues debt to government can cause, and ways the impact of this debt on people in hardship can be reduced.
The working paper and report can be found here.
The Social Wellbeing Agency works for the social sector. We use data and insights to help Government and the social sector improve the lives of New Zealanders.