21-08-2023, 03:40 PM
We really need govt to sort this problem once & for all rather than constantly tinkering around the edges. Removing Neo Liberalism would be an excellent start.
Just damn well fix it - NOW.
There is no good reason to leave things as they are, not when kids are going hungry.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/kahu/working-...BV3JAWUT4/
Susan St John
"For the last two decades critics have seen Working for Families as discriminatory, poorly-designed, far too complex and woefully ineffective at addressing the worst child poverty.
In 2004, the Child Poverty Action Group (of which I am a founding member) explained what was so wrong in a publication called Cut Price Kids and the group has been campaigning to fix Working For Families (WFF) ever since.
The main part of WFF is the per child, per week Family Tax Credit that goes to all caregivers in low-income families on the same basis. This is the best tool to ensure income adequacy. The second component, confusingly named the “In-Work Tax Credit”, is added to the Family Tax Credit weekly payment, but only when parents are eligible on paid work criteria.
While fixed hours of work no longer have to be met, if there is any benefit or part-benefit paid, then the children of those parents cannot have any of the In-Work Tax Credit.
As a result, about 200,000 of the worst-off children in New Zealand miss out on a substantial part of WFF - at least $72.50 a week.
The reasoning has been that paid work is the only way out of poverty and therefore their parents need an incentive to work.
Parents are not on benefits for fun. Their children are four times more likely than other children to live in poverty - that means going without the basics, not enough money after rent to pay for school uniforms or the power bill, let alone nutritious food.
Many of these families are sole parents, many have disabled children or there is sickness in the family. They have few job opportunities and lack support of all kinds. Even if they manage a part-time job, their part-benefit makes their children ineligible for the In-Work Tax Credit.
When a payment to a caregiver is designed to be enough to address child poverty but it is withheld from the worst-off families who are on benefits to create a work incentive, the result is deeper child poverty, not more parents off-benefit."
Just damn well fix it - NOW.
There is no good reason to leave things as they are, not when kids are going hungry.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/kahu/working-...BV3JAWUT4/
Susan St John
"For the last two decades critics have seen Working for Families as discriminatory, poorly-designed, far too complex and woefully ineffective at addressing the worst child poverty.
In 2004, the Child Poverty Action Group (of which I am a founding member) explained what was so wrong in a publication called Cut Price Kids and the group has been campaigning to fix Working For Families (WFF) ever since.
The main part of WFF is the per child, per week Family Tax Credit that goes to all caregivers in low-income families on the same basis. This is the best tool to ensure income adequacy. The second component, confusingly named the “In-Work Tax Credit”, is added to the Family Tax Credit weekly payment, but only when parents are eligible on paid work criteria.
While fixed hours of work no longer have to be met, if there is any benefit or part-benefit paid, then the children of those parents cannot have any of the In-Work Tax Credit.
As a result, about 200,000 of the worst-off children in New Zealand miss out on a substantial part of WFF - at least $72.50 a week.
The reasoning has been that paid work is the only way out of poverty and therefore their parents need an incentive to work.
Parents are not on benefits for fun. Their children are four times more likely than other children to live in poverty - that means going without the basics, not enough money after rent to pay for school uniforms or the power bill, let alone nutritious food.
Many of these families are sole parents, many have disabled children or there is sickness in the family. They have few job opportunities and lack support of all kinds. Even if they manage a part-time job, their part-benefit makes their children ineligible for the In-Work Tax Credit.
When a payment to a caregiver is designed to be enough to address child poverty but it is withheld from the worst-off families who are on benefits to create a work incentive, the result is deeper child poverty, not more parents off-benefit."
in order to be old & wise, you must first be young & stupid. (I'm still working on that.)