The Government will commit itself next week to eliminating child poverty as it launches this country's first policy specifically for children.
The Agenda for Children, to be released at Johnsonville Primary School on Thursday, will make eliminating child poverty a core policy and flag it as anelection issue.
Social Services Minister Steve Maharey said yesterday that if Labour won a second term, ending child poverty would be its top social priority.
The Agenda for Children, two years in the making, represents a new approach to children's issues and is the first time a New Zealand Government has developed a public policy devoted entirely to children.
The country suffered a brutal increase in child poverty through the 90s. In 1997-98 three in every 10 children were living in poverty (defined as families with incomes below 60 per cent of the median, adjusted for housing costs).
While the agenda is a strategy paper, without firm timeframes or new budgets, the Herald understands it says the Government is committed to increasing spending to combat child poverty and hints at increases to family benefits.
Mr Maharey clarified that yesterday, saying the Government had narrowed plans for benefit reform to two options: increasing benefit levels or merging existing special grants and assistance into a higher base benefit.
He said the single benefit would ensure beneficiaries got all the money they were entitled to and with less bureaucracy.
The National Party's social services spokesman, Bob Simcock, said a single benefit was not possible without circumstance-specific add-ons - which would only complicate benefits further.
"The crux is getting people back into work as the route out of poverty. Increasing benefits would only do harm to these families."
