Government fight looming over child payments

The Government has been forced into a court battle to stop beneficiary families making claim to $3000 a year under the Working for Families package.

In a landmark case, the Child Poverty Action Group has won the right to take legal action over Government policies it says discriminate against the 250,000 New Zealand children who have at least one parent on a benefit.

The Human Rights Review Tribunal ruled the group can legally challenge the exclusion of beneficiaries from a new payment which gives families an extra $60 a week from April.

The Government intends the payment to go to families that are not on benefits - thus dubbed the "in-work payment" - and it is meant to give parents an incentive to get off welfare.

Labour's Working for Families policy was introduced last year after criticism that it was not doing enough to help low- and middle-income families.

Extending the scheme was a key plank of Labour's election campaign and announced just days before National released its tax cut plans.

The court case is the first to be taken under amendments to the Human Rights Act allowing Government legislation and policy to be challenged.

Child Poverty Action claims the payment breaches a clause in the Human Rights Act that prohibits discrimination on the grounds of being a beneficiary.

The Crown has appealed and the case will be heard in the High Court at Wellington early next year.

The policy is budgeted to cost $289 million in its first full year and $350 million in the second year.

Extending it to the 250,000 children who have at least one parent on a benefit would cost $3120 a year for each family, or around $390 million if families have an average of two children each.

The $60-a-week payment would give a 25 per cent boost to the weekly income of the average solo parent on the domestic purposes benefit, who at present get $241 a week after tax.

Child Poverty Action spokeswoman Susan St John, an Auckland University economist, said the proposed payment discriminated against children because of their parents' situation, over which they had no control.

"If children whose parents are working need this money, why not other children?" she asked.

"Not all parents are consistently able to take up or find employment - and inadequate income during childhood can mean a lifetime of suffering and disadvantage."

Green Party social services spokeswoman Sue Bradford, who has campaigned to make the Working for Families package non-discriminatory for people on benefits, said the Human Rights Review Tribunal ruling was a significant advancement.

"It is great that they are coming out and saying beneficiaries do have human rights.

"If you are going to help poor people you should actually help the poorest of the poor."

Social Development Minister David Benson-Pope would not comment on the case yesterday.

- Additional reporting: Ainsley Thomson


The figures

* $60 a week for families with one to three children, plus $15 a week for every extra child, from next April.
* Payable to families who are not on benefits.
* Child Poverty Action Group wants it extended to 250,000 children with at least one parent on a benefit.
*Would cost $3120 a year for each family.
* Total cost about $390 million.