The Child Poverty Action Group, ActionStation, and an advocate with personal experience today jointly called for the Government to end dithering on increasing income support.
The coalition today presented a 8000-strong petition urging the Government to put children and whānau wellbeing at the heart of the welfare system to the Social Services and Community select committee, which heard the submission almost 18 months after it was first published.
“The world has changed dramatically since 2019. But it has changed in ways that show even more acutely how important our recommendations are,” ActionStation’s Ruby Powell said.
Child Poverty Action Group spokesperson Janet McAllister warned government targets for child poverty are in jeopardy. “Covid is a reason for action, not a good excuse for not meeting targets,” she said. “You are using families as economic shock absorbers. And for what? We need to know what the Government plan is, and it has to be coherent, consistent and well-resourced,” McAllister said.
Ministry of Social Development officials said in committee the ‘welfare overhaul’ programme was a three-to-five year project. But the coalition said urgent changes were needed and possible.
Powell called for an increase to core benefit levels and an end to the “0800 dob-in line”, saying resources focused on investigating fraud should be redirected to support applicants.
Alison Brooks, a mother of four, former police woman-turned-law and science student, said, “I am not entitled to a benefit because I am a full-time student”, and spoke of the injustice of the policy assumption that “40 year olds should have the means to study without support”.
Following the hearing, Janet McAlister said: “The government talks of a three to five year plan, but offers very few details. The clock started ticking on that plan two years ago, when WEAG released their recommendations. The Government must stop dragging its feet.”
Alison Brooks said: “Those in positions of authority, power, and decision-making in our system need to have the courage to make bold changes. The current welfare system upholds poverty, isolation, mental illness and crime.”
Select committee chair and Labour MP Angie Warren-Clark spoke about her experiences as a single mother seeking support, commenting that the submission was “very thoughtful”. Committee members Ricardo Menéndez March and Louise Upston asked further questions.
The demands today follow polling published last month – commissioned by ActionStation, the Child Poverty Action Group, and others – showing that 69% of New Zealanders, including 56% of National voters and 52% of ACT voters, support increasing the “amount of income support paid to those on low incomes and not in paid work.”
