Why people contact government

Following questions to establish the eligibility and co-operation of the potential respondent, the study began by asking respondents about their types of contact with government, as shown in table one below. Twelve and a half percent of respondents had not had any contact with government (1320). Table one clearly indicates that the most common reason for contacting government is to fill in a form. It should also be noted that although the third largest category is 'Received money', when respondents were asked further questions it transpired that this 'contact' usually consisted of receiving money by automatic payment to a bank account, rather than contact per se. Twelve percent of respondents said that they had not had contact with government at all in the preceding 12 months. These people skipped the following questions on government contact and rejoined the survey at Question 58, answering questions about general use of the Internet.

Table 1: Number and percentage of people's contacts with government over the last twelve months - Question 4.

NB: The majority of respondents had more than one type of contact.

The most common category for government contact was filling in a form in a range from 11% for Niuean to 41% for New Zealand European and New Zealand Maori, respectively. Over all contact categories there were 3920 New Zealand European and 695 New Zealand Maori.

Within all the ethnic groups an average of 25% respondents had not dealt with government. Making or attending appointments was equally uncommon across all groups. The response ranged from 6% for Chinese to 21% for Indian and 22% for New Zealand Maori. There were eighty-four respondents reporting Indian ethnicity and sixty-seven reporting Chinese.

People with few qualifications (sixth form certificate or less), are the groups most likely to contact government in general. The significant results for this question in relation to education levels are that, unsurprisingly, people with lower education levels are more likely to receive money from government than others, but people with graduate and postgraduate degrees are the people most likely to pay money to government, although they are joined by people without formal qualifications. The latter group are also significantly the most likely to seek information.

Males were significantly more likely to make or attend an appointment (17.8%) or pay money to government (31%) while females were significantly more likely to receive money (35.1%).

Respondents with partners were more likely to seek information but were less likely to receive money from government. Respondents who live alone were significantly less likely to either seek or provide information. Respondents with children were significantly more likely to provide information.

Self-employed people had high response rates to all categories of contact except receiving money, while beneficiaries were more likely to provide information, make an appointment and receive money.

Respondents with no income were the group most likely to say that they hadn't dealt with government in the preceding 12 months. People in the $20,000 to $29,999 income bracket were more likely to receive money.