The federal government wants to ditch intuition and be driven by numbers as it looks to shake up the welfare system.

Social Services Minister Christian Porter will use the new parliament to pursue a so-called "investment approach" to welfare.

The idea - which has been adopted in New Zealand by the Key government - has been seen as being biased towards young people because it promotes investment in them to reduce their need for assistance.

Mr Porter dismisses that view, which has been expressed by the Australian Council of Social Service, as unfair.

"If a government gets criticised because it's doing something new and investing new money and the effect of that investment is to break welfare dependency for young people ... if that's the criticism that's a criticism my government will take any day of the week," he told ABC radio on Monday.

The minister will soon receive the results of a $34 million study by PwC, which collated data from the past 15 years.

It will help the government drill down and predict what will happen to groups in the community.

The coalition also set aside $96 million in the May budget for a "Try, Test and Learn" fund, that in effect take bids from non-government organisations with plans to help improve the lives of those on welfare.

Mr Porter says there are no privacy issues because data open to them is redacted.

"For the first time what it allows us to do is take a very scientific, evidenced-based approach to welfare," he said.

"What we've been doing largely is acting on something that looks a bit like intuition.

"We do things that we think will work because we understand the mechanics of why they should work but the measurement that actually demonstrates over the long-term that they have been just hasn't been available because of technology and cost."