Davis KelvinSOCIAL SECURITY (FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE FOR CAREGIVERS) AMENDMENT BILLSecond ReadingHon KELVIN DAVIS (Minister for Children): I present a legislative statement on the Social Security (Financial Assistance for Caregivers) Amendment Bill. DEPUTY SPEAKER: That legislative statement is published under the authority of the House and can be found on the Parliament website.Hon KELVIN DAVIS: Thank you Mr Speaker. I move That the Social Security (Financial Assistance for Caregivers) Amendment Bill be now read a second time. This bill seeks to improve financial assistance for caregivers of children who are unable to be cared for by their parents. The proposals in the bill extend financial assistance to support children being cared for outside of the State care system. And whether a child is inside the State care system or outside the State care system I believe that there should be greater equity in the payments given to their caregivers. Around 15000 people throughout Aotearoa New Zealand have stepped up to take on the day-to-day care of children whose parents are unable to care for them. This may be for reasons such as the child's parents have passed away or there's been a significant breakdown in their immediate family and the child's parents are no longer able to care for them. So I take my hat off to caregivers. It is a substantial commitment to take on somebody else's children and care for them and love them as if they were your own. But whatever the case or the reason that caregivers have to take on someone else's child they have made a significant decision and are playing a critical role having opened their homes to provide awhi and aroha to our tamariki. Many of these caregivers are whānau caregivers—that is members of a child's family their whānau their hapu or their iwi and many whānau do feel that they're being asked to do this for little more than aroha. Often these whānau members are stepping up in difficult situations where there is little choice. For example if I was a grandparent in straitened circumstances and the choice for me was either to take in a grandchild whose parents couldn't care for them or to see my grandchild go into the care of strangers I know that I'd take the former choice. So this bill is part of the Government's response to the review of financial assistance for caregivers undertaken by Oranga Tamariki in 2019. I need to acknowledge the work of the former Minister the Hon Tracey Martin and thank her for the work that she put into this. As part of the review caregivers told us that they were under significant financial pressure. They told us that the payments they received were not enough to meet the needs of the tamariki in their care. The review also found that there was a lack of equity in the payments and support that caregivers outside of the State care system received compared to caregivers of children within the State care system. As far as I'm concerned whether a caregiver is a caregiver inside the State care system or outside of the State care system or a child is within the State care system or outside the State care system—regardless—they need to be supported. There needs to be equity in the support. So those caring for children outside of the State care felt that it wasn't fair they were put at a disadvantage for taking the initiative and they prevented children ending up in the care of the State in the first place. So this bill seeks to help address those disparities. It does this by firstly extending eligibility for the orphans benefit and the unsupported child's benefit to caregivers who may provide care for less than 12 months and also establishing a birthday and Christmas allowance for caregivers receiving the orphans benefit and the unsupported child's benefit. Can I take this opportunity to commend the Social Services and Community Committee for its consideration of the bill and also acknowledge all of the members of the public who took time to consider and to submit on the bill. The committee received 31 submissions and eight of those submitters made oral submissions. Many of the submissions received were from individual caregivers or organisations advocating on behalf of caregivers. It was encouraging to see how many submitters supported the intent of the bill and the specific proposals. Submitters made it clear that financial assistance plays an important role in enabling caregivers to care for tamariki. We often say that it takes a village to raise a child but also adequate financial support also makes that role a lot easier. The committee has recommended a number of amendments to the bill and I'll briefly describe the main amendments as they relate to each proposal. The first proposal in the bill extends eligibility for the orphans benefit and the unsupported child's benefit to caregivers who may provide care for less than 12 months. This will ensure that caregivers can access financial support where the care arrangement is short term or for an unknown period of time. To ensure that caregivers will be eligible for these benefits the committee recommended including a new definition of principal temporary caregiver" to be eligible for the orphans benefit and the unsupported child's benefit. The committee also recommended consequential amendments to the Social Security Act 2018 and the Social Security Regulations 2018. These amendments extend eligibility for the child disability allowance the childcare assistance and the temporary additional support in respect of the child to a temporary orphans benefit or unsupported child's benefit caregiver who is caring for a child for less than 12 months. These amendments will ensure that all caregivers in receipt of the orphans benefit or the unsupported child's benefit will have the same access to these forms of supplementary assistance. The second proposal in the bill is to establish birthday and Christmas allowances for caregivers receiving the orphans benefit or the unsupported child's benefit. In response to the suggestions raised by submitters the committee recommended that the Christmas allowance be renamed the holiday allowance. This is to recognise that Christmas may not be observed by all whānau and to be more inclusive of other cultural and religious celebrations but caregivers can still receive some support and make another day special for the child. The holiday allowance will still be tied to eligibility for the orphans benefit or the unsupported child's benefit on 25 December of each year and paid in advance of that date. The committee has recommended further minor and technical amendments that improve the workability of the bill to ensure that the bill can be implemented in line with the policy intent. I've provided further detail on these amendments in the legislative statement that I presented to the House in advance of this second reading. The Government is committed to reforming the system of financial assistance and support for caregivers. This bill puts in place measures that are just one step on that journey. It will provide more support for children living with caregivers outside of the State care system and support more whānau hapu and iwi to care for their own. And once again I just would like to take my hat off and thank all of the caregivers for the amazing work that they do caring and loving other people's children as if they were their own. So I commend the Social Security (Financial Assistance for Caregivers) Amendment Bill to the House. DEPUTY SPEAKER: The question is that the motion be agreed to."