Sole Parent Support Intensive Case Management — New Zealand's Employment-First Model for Lone Parents

Sole Parent Support (formerly the Domestic Purposes Benefit) is New Zealand's main welfare payment for parents raising children largely on their own; the great majority of recipients are women, and without targeted support many face very long benefit spells — an estimated average of 17.5 years on benefit before intervention, according to the Ministry of Social Development's own Budget 2026 documentation.

Under the intensive case management model, MSD assigns sole parents a dedicated, work-focused case manager who combines tailored employment planning, training referrals and in-work support, going beyond generic jobseeker case management.

A June 2019 MSD evaluation of intensive case management delivered between October 2012 and July 2017 found returns on investment of around $3.40 for every dollar spent, and that sole parents who moved into work through this approach remained off benefit for longer than other jobseeker groups. Building on this evidence, Budget 2026 committed a further $93.3 million over two years (2025/26–2026/27) to extend case-management capacity to 25,000 sole parents, with projected savings of $190.5 million.

As of March 2026, around 81,500 people remained on Sole Parent Support, showing continued high welfare reliance despite the programme's decade-long track record; the $3.40 return-on-investment figure comes from MSD's own internal investment-approach modelling rather than an external, independently published evaluation, a limitation worth weighing alongside the positive results.