Changes to the rules around welfare for young people will be announced tomorrow by Prime Minister John Key, who says current policies aren't working.
Mr Key wouldn't be drawn today on the details, which will be revealed in his speech to the National Party's annual conference in Wellington, but he said the situation had to change.
"That's an area we want to campaign on," he told more than 600 delegates in his brief welcoming speech.
"I believe every New Zealander should be entitled to a bright future."
Mr Key said when young people went on the dole, they tended to stay on it for a long time.
"They cost the State more, but most importantly they rob themselves of opportunity," he said.
"What we are currently doing when it comes to the welfare system for young people is not working."
Mr Key later told reporters the changes he would announce were going to cost the Government money, an indication that new training initiatives will be part of the mix.
"Fundamentally, people need to be better educated," he said.
"Disproportionately, young people find themselves unemployed."
Mr Key said New Zealand had a modern economy but there were 325,000 working age people on a benefit of some sort, about 13 percent of the population.
"A fair question for New Zealanders to ask is whether that is the appropriate level of people who should be supported by the State," he said.
"We're really working towards the objective of New Zealand having fewer people on benefits."
Mr Key said the Government hadn't yet reached a position on the youth minimum wage, which was scrapped by Labour.
"We will consider it, but I don't think you'll see a wholesale return to youth rates," he said.
"I'm not sure that cutting pay is the right long-term message."
The changes he would announce tomorrow amounted to "a range of different things", he said.
Finance Minister Bill English, in his speech to the conference today, also referred to the need to get beneficiaries into work.
"We will be working to support as many people as possible into the labour market -- skilled migrants, school leavers, and our biggest pool of lost potential, tens of thousands on long-term welfare," he said.
"Better welfare policy is as important for our economy as it is for our community."
The conference is also a celebration of National's 75th anniversary, and delegates will go to a dinner tonight attended by Mr Key and his ministers.
