Child Poverty Reduction Minister Is a Foolish Risk-Taker

Lindsay Mitchell has been researching and commenting on welfare since 2001. Many of her articles have been published in mainstream media and she has appeared on radio,tv and before select committees discussing issues relating to welfare. Lindsay is also an artist who works under commission and exhibits at Wellington, New Zealand, galleries.

 According to a report in Stuff the Prime Minister – also Child Poverty Reduction Minister – asked for advice on raising benefits by $50 weekly. That would bring more children out of poverty on paper. But she was advised that the incentives to work, which are already weak for sole parents, would be even further eroded.

The PM seems disinterested in the question of whether it is more important for children to be in working homes than on benefits.

Her overriding goal is for family incomes to rise regardless of source.

Since she became responsible for reducing child poverty Ardern has done a number of things including creating Best Start, lifting child tax credits, linking benefits to wages and increasing core payment rates (and it won’t stop there based on the advice sought since.)

That has coincided with a nineteen per cent increase – or 32,427 – more children in benefit households.

Currently, almost two-thirds of the children are in sole parent homes and the proportion of parents who have been dependent for more than a year has increased from 75 to 79 per cent.

Now consider the following Treasury evidence (work done under Bill English) about the poor outcomes associated with benefit dependency:

These are the real risks the PM is prepared to take so she can talk about lifting thousands of children out of poverty.

Perhaps in a generation’s time, there will be damaged adults calling for an apology from her for being reckless with their lives?

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