20 November 2011: News from CPAG
How about it Mr Key?
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Child Poverty Action Group asks National when it will put poor children first instead of ideology. “Cross party support including National is required, not party politics, to improve intolerable conditions for the worst off children” says CPAG’s Economic spokesperson, Susan St John.

“It is time for John Key to show he really cares about all children and commit National to join the cross party consensus. For example, providing the In Work Tax Credit to all the poorest children in New Zealand would be an immediate way to alleviate child poverty. The cost of increasing the incomes of the poorest families by $60 a week is tiny compared with the costs of child poverty”.

Labour has recognised the injustice of the In Work Tax Credit part of the Working for Families policy and promised to fix it. The Greens, Maori and Mana parties are also agreed on this. “This is a cost- effective response open to government” says St John.

CPAG has argued consistently that the In Work Tax Credit is part of per week child–related family assistance. “For the past 6 years, this payment, worth at least $3,000 per family, tax free, per year, has been with-held unjustly while it has been needed desperately to pay for basic child-related costs such as food, power, rent, clothing and education” says Susan St John. Click here to read CPAG’s Ten Myths of the ‘In Work Tax Credit’.

Some of the consequences of Government-imposed hardship are revealed in a Bryan Bruce INSIDE NEW ZEALAND documentary screening on TV3 at 7.30pm on 22 November: INSIDE CHILD POVERTY - A SPECIAL REPORT

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