4. Question No. 4—Social Development and EmploymentSARAH PALLETT (Labour—Ilam) to the Minister for Social Development and EmploymentQuestion No. 4—Social Development and Employment4. SARAH PALLETT (Labour—Ilam) to the Minister for Social Development and Employment: Talofa Mr Speaker. How is the Government supporting beneficiary sole parents through Budget 2022?Hon CARMEL SEPULONI (Minister for Social Development and Employment): Talofa lava Mr Speaker. Budget 2022 removes the discriminatory policy which saw families on a sole parent rate of benefit not receive the child support paid by the other parent. Instead the child support was claimed by Inland Revenue. From mid-2023 child support payments for sole parent beneficiaries will be passed on directly to them by Inland Revenue and treated as income for benefit purposes. This will align with what already occurs for other partnered beneficiaries raising tamariki. It is estimated that 41550 sole parent families will be better off with a median gain of $24 per week. Removing this policy will lift an estimated 6000 to 14000 children out of poverty using the BHC 50 measure. It is also anticipated it will encourage more parents to pay child support as they know it will go directly to their children.Sarah Pallett: Why is removing this policy so important?Hon CARMEL SEPULONI: Removing this policy will provide more money to parents so they can provide more support to their children. There is also evidence from overseas suggesting that passing on child support can result in an improved relationship between the child and the non-custodial parent who makes the payment. This is essential in helping our tamariki have the best possible start in life. There will be 20300 Māori who will be impacted by this change. The vast majority of them are Māori women—given that 88 percent of all sole parent beneficiaries are women. Overall this is a positive change which removes a policy which has unfairly discriminated against sole parents for decades.Sarah Pallett: What feedback has she seen on the change?Hon CARMEL SEPULONI: The move to make this change has received a lot of very positive feedback. This includes Dr Ang Jury the CEO of Women's Refuge who said This is a positive move which has the potential to significantly benefit these women and their children." Also Children's Commissioner Judge Frances Eivers said she welcomes it hugely and that passing on child support would help to reduce poverty and improve the lives of some of society's most vulnerable. Overall this is a long-overdue move and I now look forward to introducing the legislation into the House to make this a reality.Ricardo Menéndez March: Would the Minister agree with 63 percent of New Zealanders who believe that beneficiaries including sole parents receiving a main benefit should receive the $350 cost of living payment?Hon CARMEL SEPULONI: What I agree with are the social services who I've had the opportunity to speak with over the course of the last two years and particularly the last year with respect to the number of families that they have been seeing who are on low to middle incomes and who they believe have received no assistance during this period particularly as we've entered into this phase where because of international impacts or influences we're seeing inflationary increases that are affecting the cost of living. We needed to move quickly to ensure that they were able to receive some support as well and that is why we made the decision to introduce the cost of living payment in the way that we did."