This report examines employment and other outcomes for people in the 12 months after they stopped receiving a main benefit (social welfare). It follows the outcomes for about 111,000 people who came off a main benefit in the year to June 2019, after they had been off a benefit for at least a calendar month. It observed them over the next year.

It considers reasons for coming off a benefit - including destinations, types of work or study, earnings over a defined threshold ($1,512 per month) and whether post-benefit life was sustainable. It provides some age, gender, and ethnicity breakdowns.

It also compares reasons for coming off a benefit and outcomes with previous periods. Understanding what happens when people leave a main benefit, and whether and how this has changed over time, helps guide research, policy and service design which can improve the lives of individuals and their whānau.