Davis Kelvin; Rurawhe AdrianSOCIAL SECURITY (FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE FOR CAREGIVERS) AMENDMENT BILLFirst ReadingHon KELVIN DAVIS (Minister for Children): I present to the House a legislative statement on the Social Security (Financial Assistance for Caregivers) Amendment Bill.Legislative statement published under the authority of the House.Hon KELVIN DAVIS: I move That the Social Security (Financial Assistance for Caregivers) Amendment Bill be now read a first time. I nominate the Social Services and Community Committee to consider the bill as this bill amends the Social Security Act 2018.I also want to acknowledge the Minister for Social Development and Employment who is the Minister responsible for the Act for her engagement in the development of this bill.First of all I'd like to acknowledge the Hon Tracey Martin—the former Minister for Children. I'd like to acknowledge her for the work that she did. It was her that kicked off the review of the financial assistance for caregivers which found that the financial assistance that we do give to caregivers is wanting and it is fragmented. It was her that got this bill to this stage now where it's being read for the first time. I know that she would have loved to have been here to be the Minister in charge and the Minister making the statement that I'm doing now.This Government has the aspiration that New Zealand is the best place in the world to be a child. It is everybody's dream I guess—or wish—that every child in New Zealand has a safe secure loving whānau and preferably their own family; however that's not always the case. For whatever reason there are a number of children who sadly cannot be looked after by their own family and therefore have to be looked after by other caregivers. Across New Zealand there are about 15000 caregivers who have stepped up on a day-to-day basis to look after some 24000 New Zealand children who are not able to be cared for by their parents.There are two types of caregivers: one are caregivers who look after children in State care and on the other hand there are children who are looked after by caregivers who are not in State care. This bill is about the discrepancy between the support that those two types of caregivers get. For example those caregivers who look after children in State care receive the foster care allowance and they receive it immediately. Now this allowance is used for such things as obviously living costs food clothes school fees sports camps and hobbies that the children who they are looking after may wish to participate in. For those caregivers who look after children outside of State care they don't receive an immediate allowance. They are entitled if they can present a case that the children will be left with them or in their care for over 12 months to receive the orphans benefit and the unsupported child's allowance.Now these caregivers of children not in State care—more often than not these children are probably whānau. Their parents may have passed away or quite simply the parents might not be able to cope with looking after them. They may be imprisoned. They may have a long-term disability. There may be some family breakdown or illness hence the reason these children are looked after but not in State care. So in other words they haven't been uplifted by the State. Because the caregivers have to present a case that the children would be with them for 12 months we call this the 12-month rule". It's not fair that the caregivers have to prove that they'll be looking after them for 12 months before they receive an orphans benefit or the unsupported child's allowance. It's not fair because these people have taken on the care of someone else's child. Often they have no financial support and often they have their own whānau their own children that they have to look after as well. This puts pressure of course on their own household finances such as paying for the food the power the electricity. Of course their own children may be wanting to participate in sports hobbies and those sorts of activities and it is unfair on those families in their entirety. So what this bill does is it removes that 12-month rule and it ensures that the caregivers receive that appropriate financial support so that they can receive either the orphans benefit or the unsupported child's benefit.The second change that this bill is making is to support the children and their caregivers not under State care to receive the Christmas and the birthday allowance. Now most of us in this House would have grown up in households where we would before Christmas or before our birthdays probably be lying in bed excited—the anticipation of knowing when we get up in the morning that we'll probably receive a gift or there will be a birthday party put on by our parents. Most of us will remember that excitement from our childhood. Unfortunately there are a number of children who don't have that. At Christmas time and birthdays they don't have something to look forward to. They probably know that they might not receive a birthday present. They probably won't have a party. They won't have friends around. What this bill does is give those caregivers of children not in State care the birthday and Christmas allowance so that they can actually provide for those children on those very special days. Really this is just making the system a lot more fair so that those caregivers of children not in State care receive a similar sort of support to those children who are in State care.So just to go through what exactly is changing in it the bill removes the requirement that applicants are likely to be the principal caregiver of the child for at least a year by repealing the relevant eligibility criteria from sections 44(e) and 47(e) of the Social Security Act 2018. It's removing the minimum time-period requirement for an arrangement to qualify for the orphans benefit or the unsupported child benefit and associated payments and it would allow caregivers to receive the orphans benefit and the unsupported child's benefit when the expected duration of the care arrangement may be short-term unknown or uncertain. So the applicants would still need to meet the remaining eligibility criteria including that there must have been a family breakdown or that the parents have died are missing or have a long-term disablement. This will continue to be investigated and evidenced through the family breakdown assessment processor through a family group conference.Again why the change? The review of financial assistance for caregivers found that in many caregiving situations the expected placement duration may be short term: for example when a parent is sentenced to prison for less than 12 months and an alternative caregiver will be looking after the child for that period or the placement is unknown or uncertain: for example when family members take on care of a child for an unknown period of time such as while a more sustainable living arrangement can be found or when an intervention has been put in place that may address a root cause of the family breakdown. So in some of these cases what is expected to be a short-term care situation following a family breakdown can become a long-term or permanent placement.In practice it means there are caregivers who take on the care of a child often in difficult and/or short-term situations where there is little other choice who are unable to access financial assistance to help them to provide care. This is despite the fact that they like other caregivers have taken on primary responsibility for the day-to-day care of the child when that child's parents are unable to care for them. Again the second part that we're changing: the caregivers in receipt of the foster care allowance receive the two allowances to cover the costs of celebrations and a gift for the children in their care on special occasions. The birthday allowance is paid in advance of a child's birthday and the Christmas allowance is paid in December of each year. The amount of the payment is half the amount of the weekly base rate of the foster care allowance that the caregiver receives and it currently ranges from about $100 to $130. These two allowances are not currently available to the orphans benefit and the unsupported child's benefit caregivers.So the bill amends the Social Security Act 2018 to establish these two allowances for orphans benefit and unsupported child's benefit caregivers. Kia ora.DEPUTY SPEAKER: The question is that the motion be agreed to."