Archive for February 2011
I feel remarkably disturbed by the release of the report from the Welfare Working Group.
Given that:
- The Domestic Purposes Benefit is designed to be the minimum necessary amount for people to live on.
- Currently it increases as additional children are born to cover the increased costs of food, clothing and so on.
- The WWG will substantially increase the pressure to get into work earlier.
- Failure to comply leads to a cut of the benefit paid in steps down to 0.
- These children, whether born to ‘good’ or ‘bad’ parents, still need to be cared for.
Let me be very clear about this – if your policies lead to children starving in a relatively rich country like New Zealand, you’re not just wrong or heartless, but evil.
One final note: some of the people who will be on the Domestic Purposes Benefit by the time these policies are implemented will only be so because they lost their partner in the Christchurch Quake.