Beneficiary families better off, says Govt

David Benson Pope

Despite claims that the Working For Families package has ignored beneficiary families, the Government says it has made them $32 a week better off, on average.

It was responding to claims made about research released on Tuesday, which found a large rise in the number of beneficiary families facing severe or significant hardship between 2000 and 2004.

Nearly two-thirds of beneficiary families fell into this category - almost 250,000 people.

The findings have sparked widespread criticism from several political parties and child welfare groups, which claim it proves that Working For Families - aimed largely at providing financial top-ups for working families - has failed the poorest sector of the population.

Social Development Minister David Benson Pope yesterday expressed his "concern" about the findings in the report from his ministry, but said the package introduced in 2004 would have largely addressed the problem.

While those families lost the child component of their benefits, as a result of the reforms, they had gained additional family support and accommodation assistance by last April.

Once all this was taken into account, the families were on average $32 a week better off.

Ministry of Social Development figures released yesterday show the increases vary significantly between families.

Excluding potential accommodation supplement and childcare assistance, a beneficiary couple with one child is now just $7.86 better off since the package kicked in, while a couple with four children gets $52.86 more.

A beneficiary sole parent with one child is $25 better off, but a sole parent with two children gets just $18.60 more.

Further increases to family support next year will deliver an extra $10 per child and from then the payment will be inflation adjusted once price increases reach a total of 5 per cent.

Mr Benson-Pope yesterday refused to consider calls to review benefit levels in the wake of the research.

His spokeswoman confirmed that, adjusted for inflation, benefits were still lower than they were before the 1991 benefit cuts.

Green MP Metiria Turei said the Government's response would only cement in the discrimination faced by beneficiary families.

"The simultaneous demolition of the flexible, more generous special benefit scheme will only increase the hardship and suffering cited in the Living Standards Report, and that trend is likely to further intensify during the transition to the single core benefit."

Maori Party co-leader Pita Sharples said while he did not like benefits because they entrenched dependency, people receiving them needed to be paid a realistic income.

He called on central and local government agencies and large companies to address the real problem, which he said was despondent communities with no jobs caught in a cycle of hopelessness.

* An earlier version of this story incorrectly said familes were $36 a week better off. The correct figure is $32.