Efforts to get people off benefits and into work will produce good outcomes for families so long as the importance of parenting and caring roles is built into the equation, the Families Commission says in its submission to the Welfare Working Group’s options paper for welfare reform.

The Commission’s submission notes that beneficiaries, particularly sole parents, are most likely to be in poverty. “Research clearly shows that poverty leads to poor outcomes for children and that paid work is the best way out of poverty,” says Chief Families Commissioner Carl Davidson.

“However,” he says, “as well as helping people into work, the welfare system must value and acknowledge the role of parenting and care giving. Pressure to get sole parents, in particular, into work should not be at the cost of depriving children, especially very young children, of the parental time they need to develop to their fullest potential physically, socially and educationally.”

The Commission’s submission emphasises the importance of parenting in creating healthy families, and healthy communities. It recommends that encouragement and incentives to get beneficiaries into work should be accompanied by access to affordable childcare, work and life-skills training and the encouragement of family-friendly workplaces. This would help get parents into work but also meet their obligations for the care and protection of their children. It also suggests that improvements to paid parental leave provisions could help prevent working sole parents from having to get into the welfare system.

Rather than commenting on each option in the Welfare Working Group’s options paper, the Commission has presented a list of principles that can be used to guide reform of the welfare system. It believes the principles will help the Welfare Working group decide which options to recommend to government.

The principles include: Taking into account individual’s circumstances rather than treating beneficiaries identically; that sanctions should be targeted at people who will not comply with reasonable requirements but should not disadvantage children or other dependents; and that welfare-to-work schemes need to be designed specifically for New Zealand conditions.

“Our research,” Mr Davidson says, “shows that we can learn a great deal from the overseas experience of welfare-to-work programmes. If such schemes are to work in New Zealand they need to be designed for our conditions; and they need to treat people as individuals and take into account their ability to work, their family responsibilities, training needs and financial situation.”

Mr Davidson says the Families Commission has offered to help with research into how welfare-to-work programmes can be designed to succeed in New Zealand.

ENDS

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