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A lobby group says the KiwiSaver scheme will reverse the Robin Hood ethic by taking money from poor families and giving it to the rich.
Speakers at a Child Poverty Action Group post-Budget breakfast in Auckland yesterday hit out at a Budget forecast that only 50 per cent of New Zealanders aged 18 to 65 were expected to join KiwiSaver by 2016-2017.
Auckland University economist Susan St John said those who joined would be mostly the better off. The worse off could not afford to join.
"It will make two classes of employees in the country and even in the same firm. One will subsidise the other effectively, paying higher taxes to cover the subsidy."
Another researcher for the group, Donna Wynd, described the scheme as "seriously regressive", adding: "The more you earn, the more you get."
A spokesman for Finance Minister Michael Cullen said later that the estimate of 50 per cent take-up of KiwiSaver by 2016-2017 was based on calculations for each income class, but the calculations were secret and the Herald would have to apply for them under the Official Information Act.
He said Dr Cullen was concerned about low-income people and that was why he had limited the taxpayer subsidy for KiwiSavers to 4 per cent of employees' incomes up to a maximum of only $20 a week, so people earning more than $500 a week received no extra benefit.
But Dr St John said: "How can you set aside the savings of the wealthy and give them more than the unemployment benefit when they reach 65? These kinds of changes are very dangerous."
