The Social Development Minister has banned her department from giving taxpayer grants to people so they can look for work outside New Zealand.
Paula Bennett is tabling a direction in Parliament on Thursday in response to controversy about transition to work grants being spent on airfares by jobseekers heading to Australia
Checks have shown that in 2007 and this year, 22 grants were used for airfares at a total cost of about $4600.
The ministry is still checking to find out how many times it happened in the intervening four years.
