Children bear brunt of punitive sanctions
Our poorest children are bearing the brunt of benefit cuts intended to penalise parents who do not met work obligations.
Information received from Work and Income NZ under the Official Information Act shows a significant number of people on
benefits with dependent children are having their benefits halved for not meeting work obligations. In 2010 the
government introduced changes to welfare, with increased obligations for people on benefits to take on paid work and
penalties for those who do not meet those obligations.
CPAG has received figures from Work and Income NZ under the Official Information Act which give a snapshot of the
situation as at the end of August 2012. The figures show at that time 377 people with dependent children had had
benefits reduced by 50%. The majority of those (234) were sole-parents receiving the DPB. In 84 cases, the youngest
child in the family was younger than five. In 63 cases, the reduction had lasted over four weeks.
CPAG Director, Assoc Prof Michael O’Brien said, “We are extremely concerned for the children in families where benefit
income is reduced by half. Benefit levels provide a subsistence level of support at best and these children almost
certainly lead very impoverished lives already. We know poverty can have life-long consequences on children’s health,
education and well-being. The government has failed to take the needs of extremely vulnerable children into account in
their ideological zeal for work at any cost. In a period of high unemployment and rising costs this amounts to state
neglect.”
--ENDS--