This has never been publicised in the interest of commercial sensitivity. The accommodation supplement is complex, stigmatising and crude as a mechanism for assisting with housing costs. It abates when beenficairies earn a little extra income, and when they manage to accumulate cash assets such as may be necessary to get a deposit on a house. As might be predicted with any complicated targeted provision its takeup rate is low. Child Poverty Action believes the current housing policies are not only not working, but they are aggravating an already serious problem of poverty among New Zealand children.
Fundamental change is required.
Options will be explored in a later backgrounder after the election.