Judith Collins perpetuates child support debt myth for cheap political gain.
“To avoid misleading the public Judith Collins needs to do some basic maths and learn some fundamental analysis skills
before she continues with perpetuating the child support debt myth. Responded Mark Shipman, National President of
Parents for Children, in response to National’s announced moves to target child support payments.
“Ms Collins knows that well over half of this alleged debt is derived from the punitive penalty regime that National
created when they enacted the Child Support Act 1991 and that these penalties go straight to the government coffers not
to children. What’s more Parents for Children believes that the bulk of the alleged debt is bogus or caused by the
systemic process failure within the Inland Revenue Department”. Commented Shipman.
“Take the case of John, a father of a severely disabled child who was in full time institutional care. For close to
four years IRD hounded John, seeking payment of “child support” to recover a benefit payment made to the child’s mother.
John had an alleged debt of about $25,000 with IRD and despite lawyer’s letters and an MP’s intervention IRD refused to
acknowledge they had made a mistake. This is one of many examples of systemic process failure in IRD that create this
alleged debt figure.” Commented Shipman when asked for examples of the bogus component of alleged Child Support debt.
“Instead of trying to beat up on parents for a cheap media gain in election year, National should be promoting solutions
that are in the best interest of our children: presumptive shared parenting and a fair and reasonable child support
system.” Concluded Shipman