Shanks Katrina: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Shanks Katrina: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
[Sitting date: 24 March 2010. Volume:661;Page:9753. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
2. 
KATRINA SHANKS (National) 
 to the  
Minister for Social Development and Employment 
: Who will be better off under the Future Focus welfare package announced yesterday? 
Hon PAULA BENNETT (Minister for Social Development and Employment) 
: 
 New Zealand will be better off. All of the 345000 beneficiaries will benefit from the legislated CPI changes including 28000 who will be better off as a result of abatement changes: 14000 sole parents who are working part-time now 9100 invalids 1600 widows and 3200 superannuitants and veterans. In addition 3 million taxpayers will be better off knowing that we are getting support to the people who really need it. 
Katrina Shanks 
: How much better off will those beneficiaries be? 
Hon PAULA BENNETT 
: The CPI increase will be up to $5.34 a week. The combined changes mean that a widow working part-time could be up to $9.89 better off a week. A sole parent working 16 hours a week could be $19.34 better off a week. Those figures do not include the extra income they will get in wages. 
Carmel Sepuloni 
: Does she agree with her ministerial colleague Peter Dunne who said that children could become collateral damage in her welfare reforms; will she give a guarantee to this House that no child will suffer as a consequence of her changes? 
Hon PAULA BENNETT 
: The changes that we are making in sanctions mean that instead of the 100 percent cut-off of benefits if people were not meeting their obligations which is what happened previously under the Labour Government there will be an in-between step. Under Labour there was a 100 percent cut-off. If people were not meeting their obligations they could lose 100 percent of their benefits. We are putting a fair step in the system that says they could first lose half. We are also making an absolute guarantee that no one on the domestic purposes benefit would lose more than half of their benefit. They can still get the accommodation supplement and the extras that go on top of their benefit. Actually parents need to take responsibility for their children. The obligations are not onerous. Parents need to step up and make sure that they are there. 
Hon Darren Hughes 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. That was a long and interesting answer but there was not one reference to the Hon Peter Dunne which was the basis of the question. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: Had his colleague asked just that question I would have asked the Minister to answer it but Carmel Sepuloni asked two parts to the question and the Minister focused on the second part which she is perfectly entitled to do. 
Katrina Shanks 
: When was the abatement level last changed? 
Hon PAULA BENNETT 
: The amount beneficiaries can earn before their benefit is abated has not been changed since it was increased by the previous National Government in 1996. So it was obviously not a priority for the last Labour Government through all of the good years when it chose not to return some money to people’s own pockets. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: I say to members that it has been very noisy today. I realise this issue arouses quite a lot of feeling so I accept a bit of noise. But I ask please for a little respect.