Housing NZ has bought a motel to help meet the area's housing shortage - but the existing residents will have to move out to make room for the homeless.

A brief liaison with a man she didn't know cost a young Auckland woman $28 a week off her benefit for two years.

The Ministry of Social Development may have to pay millions to make Work and Income offices safer for staff.

A family living in a South Auckland garage faces eviction in October because the landlord converted it into a flat without a council permit.

A new study says Work and Income is pushing many beneficiaries into jobs that don't last - and even told a pregnant woman to start

A new study by Victoria University student Alicia Sudden says Work and Income is pushing many beneficiaries into jobs that don't last.

Threats and assaults on Work and Income staff in Canterbury doubled after the fatal shooting in Ashburton two years ago.

Labour's new emergency housing promise is a vast improvement on its last effort.

Work and Income double-killer Russell John Tully has lodged an appeal against his conviction and sentence of life imprisonment.

Work and Income offices in Linwood, Sydenham and Hornby in Christchurch have been closed after receiving threats.

COMMENT: It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out why the Government isn't making election promises to those in need.

Housing crisis, what housing crisis? It depends on what you mean by crisis, says the Government. And of course, what you mean by housing.

A man who threatened to blow up staff at a Winz office has today been jailed for nearly three years.

Hearing disabled Napier man Murray Whittington's search to find rental accommodation has drawn a blank.

Late start to the season means apple growers will face a race against time to have fruit picked, raising concerns about the availability of labour.

A Christchurch man who tried enter a Work and Income office with a gun and threatened to kill staff wants to meet his victims.

More than 30,000 New Zealanders had their benefits cut last financial year for travelling overseas without letting officials know.

A man accused of trying to enter a Christchurch Work and Income office with a gun and letting off a shot outside, also threatened to kill Winz workers, police are now alleging.

Mitchell Moulton, 32, appeared in the city's district court this afternoon and was ordered to stay in custody until his next appearance.

A man has been arrested after threatening the Linwood Work and Income office with a firearm this morning.

A multimillion-dollar scheme to get beneficiaries with mental health conditions and sole parents back to work appears to have flopped.

A substance found outside the Work and Income office in Levin earlier this morning was sugar.

Since last year's Ashburton shooting the number of assaults on Work and Income staff has doubled, newly released figures show.

A bouncer who was told she was "worthless" and threatened with gang action from two WINZ workers says dealing with verbally abusive customers has become commonplace.

But bar owner says the two Ministry of Social Development workers who abused his staff won't be welcome back.

The Ministry of Social Development has pleaded not guilty this morning to charges over the deadly Ashburton Work and Income shootings.

Hine felt the centre was not a good fit for her son, and that they didn't understand her culture. Her boy would cry every day when she dropped him off.

The man accused of killing two women at Ashburton’s Work and Income office last year appeared via video link at the Christchurch District Court this morning.