Sio William: Social Assistance (Living Alone Payments) Amendment Bill — Third Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Sio William: Social Assistance (Living Alone Payments) Amendment Bill — Third Reading 
[Sitting date: 28 March 2013. Volume:688;Page:9095. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
Su’a WILLIAM SIO (Labour—Mangere) 
: 
 Unlike the previous speaker Peseta Sam Lotu-Iiga I will take a full 10-minute call on this bill the Social Assistance (Living Alone Payments) Amendment Bill as a responsible Opposition member. Labour will support this bill so I am happy to make a contribution on the Social Assistance (Living Alone Payments) Amendment Bill. 
Dr Megan Woods 
: Good on you. That’s responsible. 
Su’a WILLIAM SIO 
: We are a responsible Opposition. We will hold that Government to account. We will hold that Government to account but we will give credit where credit is due and on this particular bill we think that it is sensible. Of course it is sensible because you have an Opposition that has contributed to the making of the final draft of this particular bill. 
Melissa Lee 
: Ha ha! 
Su’a WILLIAM SIO 
: Melissa Lee might laugh but that is exactly why a Government is only as good as the Opposition here. All right? OK? So as a responsible Opposition we will—[ 
Interruption 
] Well that is right. Unfortunately the Opposition is a little bit better than the Government but hey. 
Labour will support this bill. We think that it is worthwhile because it ensures that superannuitants and veterans pensioners who are living alone will not have to make a separate application to receive their full entitlements. It improves the lives of older people—[ 
Interruption 
] Absolutely. It will be the older people who are struggling to see whether they can continue to support this Government particularly in light of what it continues to do with old people nowadays. We believe that these changes will reduce the burden of compliance on single superannuitants to receive their full entitlement. Of course the Social Services Committee has had a chance to look through and hear the submissions. Unfortunately—or fortunately—there have been only a couple of submitters one from the Dunedin Community Law Centre and the other from Grey Power. 
The bill will amend the New Zealand Superannuation and Retirement Income Act 2001 and the War Pensions Act 1954. There are some technical changes—two technical changes—in terms of redefining the definition of dependent child for determining eligibility for the new single living alone rate and the definition of boarding houses. 
I get tired of getting up on a Thursday evening when most people are preparing for Easter to debate these bills that are low level in many respects when there are still very serious issues out there that our community throughout New Zealand is encountering. One wonders that surely there is something better that the Government can address at this particular time. But never mind National is in Government and unfortunately some Governments do better than others. 
I want to talk just a little bit about the effect the new definition of dependent child will have. We were advised by the Ministry of Social Development that the change will have no impact on the New Zealand superannuitants or veterans pension clients currently receiving living alone assistance who live with their child over 18 years of age. The bill will make the definition of a child aged 18 years or older for the purposes of determining whether that child living with the living alone pensioner is eligible for that assistance consistent with the Social Security Act 1964 and section 1 of the Income Tax Act 2007. The Ministry of Social Development advised that a child who turns 18 is an adult and that living alone assistance is for people who do not live with another adult and it claims that other support is available for adult children. The exception to this is for children who are still at secondary school who do not have their own income or access to support in their own right. 
I want to point out for the House that this was an area that the two submitters the Dunedin Law Community Centre and Grey Power had concerns about. In recognition of those concerns my colleague Jacinda Ardern developed amendments to try to in our view improve the legislation. Unfortunately the Government as is typical did not listen. I want to point out that the Dunedin Community Law Centre said in its submission that it foresaw “problems with Section 4A for … pensioners where their dependent child is enrolled in tertiary education.” It argued that “Children begin tertiary education when they are 17 or 18 years of age”. It also argued that a “standard bachelors degree” for most people takes either 3 or 4 years whatever the degree might be. So that child if they start tertiary education at 17 will still be dependent at 21 or 22 if they start at 18. The problem that we now find in this current economic environment is that you have graduates who are struggling to find jobs. It may take them 6 months or a year to find jobs. There are cases where some of the graduates from our tertiary facilities are waiting around looking for work for 2 or 3 years. So if you take all of that into consideration a parent might have a dependent adult child living with them up to the age of 24 or 25. 
 Furthermore the Dunedin Community Law Centre said that couples today are having children at a later stage in their lives and find that parents “are still supporting their dependent children in tertiary education as they move into or are in their retirement years.” They give examples. One example is a woman who has a child at 40 years or later. She could still be supporting that child at a tertiary level when she is 65 years old and that child will be in their early or mid-20s. Similarly if a man has a child when he is 50 years old then that child will be 15 years of age when the father becomes eligible for superannuation. So there is genuine concern around that aspect of the bill that this Government did not see fit to improve on. 
The Grey Power submission also raised concern on this very matter. It said: “Some single parents may without alternative income or savings wish to support the child through the time that the child is receiving Tertiary Education and there could well be some cases of undue hardship which may need special support.” We did not make that up. We did not make our requests for this Government to improve the bill by addressing that and so we put up the amendments that were needed for this Government to do that. Unfortunately it refused but is that not typical? It refused to improve the bill particularly when the Opposition was recommending it. As a responsible Opposition we will question and oppose what we believe is not right but we will support something that we think is appropriate. 
The Ministry of Social Development also said that at age 18 a young person has this range of opportunities to earn an income and it said there are wages from work a benefit student allowances and student loans. Well the issue I have with that is that at this very moment we have the highest unemployment rate for young people aged 18 to 24. Many of that age group are looking to go elsewhere. Not only have we got high unemployment but this very Government has cut wages for youth to 80 percent of the minimum wage. So how on earth then can it expect young people to be able to support themselves and become financially independent when this very Government is again shutting the door on them? You get a young person dependent on a benefit or dependent on a student allowance who might then jeopardise the ability of their older parent or older adult whom they are relying on to receive the living alone allowance. 
The last thing I want to say is that the Government recommended that 18-year-olds find financial independence by getting a student loan. That is unbelievable. That is bizarre that this Government would ask that—