The Department of Work and Income paid special needs grants for 11 vasectomies and five abortions last month.
The department also paid out one grant for a hair piece.
But by far the biggest number of grants were for food - 22,058 of them totalling about $2 million.
The vasectomies cost the department $2611.
That compared with $2055 paid out on school uniforms and $73 paid for school stationery.
Special needs grants for dentures, glasses and hearing aids cost the department $9385.
Other grants included money for medical treatment overseas, training fees, accommodation, electricity and gas bills, clothing, dental bills, emergency medical treatment, funeral costs and furniture.
The special needs figures were released yesterday in response to a parliamentary question from the National MP Belinda Vernon to the Associate Minister of Social Services and Employment, Ruth Dyson.
Belinda Vernon has questioned the appropriateness of special needs grants for vasectomies.
She says it would be "tenuous" to suggest that having a vasectomy would make someone more likely to be employed.
- NZPA
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