One out of every 40 people who took a government grant offering $3000 to move to Christchurch for work has had to give money back.
Photo: 123rf.com
The grant was offered by the Ministry of Social Development to attract beneficiaries to take up full-time work in the region.
To get the grant, beneficiaries needed a guarantee of more than 30 hours of work per week, for at least three months.
Figures released to RNZ show by the end of June, more than 2000 people had taken up the offer.
But 51 had to return the money because they did not meet the conditions of the grant, having left employment without good reason.
The figures show a further 15 people took the grant disingenuously, resulting in eight prosecutions.
* This story has been corrected. RNZ intially reported one in 10 people had had to make repayments.
