Dear Ministry of Justice,

I am writing on behalf of Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG) New Zealand to request statistics of benefit fraud convictions and imprisonments in New Zealand each year for the past decade (since 2005). If possible an urgent response would be appreciated.

Specifically we would like to know:

The number of people convicted of benefit fraud (BF) each year since 2005
The number of people convicted (of BF each year) that resulted in imprisonment (by gender and ethnicity)
The number of people imprisoned (for BF each year) who are mothers with dependent children (by ethnicity)
The current numbers of mothers in prison (for BF convictions) by ethnicity.

If you can supply any or all of the above statistics as soon as possible that would be greatly appreciated.

Yours faithfully,

Jeni Cartwright
of Child Poverty Action Group