Pugh MaureenMAUREEN PUGH (National): Thank you very much Mr Speaker. I also stand tonight to speak to the Social Security (Financial Assistance for Caregivers) Amendment Bill in its second reading.I'll start my contribution by acknowledging all of those carers around New Zealand who take children into their own homes. They provide stability they provide security and they provide love to over 22000 children in this country. Thank you for what you do. Not you Mr Speaker.Hon Member: But still thank him for what he does.MAUREEN PUGH: But thank you for what you do anyway.I also acknowledge as the Minister has mentioned the former Minister—the Hon Tracey Martin—for the work that she has done on this bill. She was a fine advocate a very passionate advocate for the children in this country.Now as we heard the bill is a result of a review that was done in 2019 about the way Government payments are made to carers—those carers that provide for the 22000 children in their care here in New Zealand. It was apparent that the financial support for carers who look after children in foster homes was different to those who look after children on unsupported child benefits or on the orphans benefit. So what this bill basically does is correct that disparity between those three different types of benefits and it gives it some equity. So this bill will remove those disparities.I'd like to just outline the different types of payments and the reason that we've got this inconsistency. It's come about over time as a bit of a piecemeal adjustment is made to benefits and living arrangements over time. At the moment we've got the foster care allowance which is governed by the Oranga Tamariki Act of 1989 but the orphans benefit and the unsupported child's benefit are governed by the Social Security Act of 2018. Now the foster care allowance is administered by Oranga Tamariki the orphans benefit and unsupported child's benefit are administered by the Ministry of Social Development and then we have the foster care allowance which is paid for caring for a child or a young person in State care. What that means is that they are subject to an order for custody or they have sole guardianship or they have a care agreement under the Oranga Tamariki Act whereas the orphans benefit and the unsupported child's benefit are for looking after children or a young person whose parents have died who have a very serious long-term disability or in some rare cases—we learnt—whose parents are actually missing. So as you can see there are some variations in the different legislation that covers these benefits and what they're meant to do is to meet the needs—or the reasonable needs—of a young child. In terms of the foster care allowance the Oranga Tamariki Act says that it is to meet the reasonable needs of the child or young person whereas the orphans benefit and unsupported child's benefit legislation says it is to assist with the cost of caring for a child who is not the caregiver's own. So one set of legislation meets the needs and the others assist with the costs. So this bill does set out to remedy that disparity between those various pieces of legislation. In the law as it currently exists there is a 12-month rule and what this bill will do is remove that 12-month clause. So what it does it says that the child who qualifies for the orphans benefit or the unsupported child's benefit who is in the care of whānau or extended family wasn't eligible for support for one year and that was brought in originally so that it encouraged long-term caregiving arrangements. But this bill will remove that 12-month eligibility rule which brings it into alignment with foster care arrangements. I think this is one of the areas that we need to monitor very closely because without some guarantee of long-term care we do run the risk of children being moved from one family to another. And I think that that would be incumbent on us to ensure that those living arrangements for those children are stable.The bill also replicates the allowances that are paid to foster carers for birthdays and Christmas. So that's a mechanism so that these children when they have a birthday or it comes to Christmas time instead of having the carers having to pay for that personally that there is a small allowance made for foster children. This bill will align that with the orphans benefit and the unsupported child's benefit. The difference between the two benefits over time is around $10 to $30 a week and so it will benefit the orphans benefit and the unsupported child's benefit. But the care commitments are no different depending on what you know qualification the child has as to what benefit they are receiving so it does make sense that these are aligned across all of those.As the Minister Kelvin Davis has said the Social Services and Community Committee received 31 submissions on the bill. It wasn't too many I thought considering 22000 children are out there in care but they were quality submissions as you would expect. Some of the feedback was extremely good and some was quite taxing for the select committee because there were a lot of things—and I can see the chair over there nodding. There were a lot of things we would have loved to have extended into but of course and it's not unusual but they did fall outside of the brief or the scope of this bill. But some of them were very sound recommendations and I think at some point there will be a revisit to some of those recommendations. Several of those submissions raised were related to the wider welfare system and how that could be remedied or improved and other recommendations suggested that all benefit rates be increased. One of the things that did come up and it's a submission that I'd like to refer back to came from Age Concern New Zealand and YouthLaw Aotearoa—both of those submissions raised issues around the youth payment. Again it's one of those ones that did fall outside of the scope of the bill but YouthLaw Aotearoa suggested that the eligibility criteria for the youth payment be expanded to provide for young people who may not feel safe living with their parents even though their parents may want them to stay at home. But there was no mechanism for them to extricate themselves from that situation. So again it'll be something that I think Oranga Tamariki will turn its mind to. One of the things that did tax us throughout all of our discussions on this bill was the name of the orphans benefit. Although we all agreed that it was an unfortunate name and wasn't completely reflective of the children it always referred to we just simply couldn't come up with an alternative suggestion. So it is still here. But I imagine that—if my committee members are still in agreement—if some wise person out there could come back with an idea we would look to change the name of the orphans benefit. We're all in agreement in this House on the passage of this bill. It brings us all into alignment with the various types of support that are available for people who care for children in this country regardless of whether they are in a foster care arrangement whether they are supported by the orphans benefit or an unsupported child's benefit. I have great pleasure in commending it to the House.