7. Question No. 7—Social Development and EmploymentJAN LOGIE (Green) to the Minister for Social Development and EmploymentQuestion No. 7—Social Development and Employment7. JAN LOGIE (Green) to the Minister for Social Development and Employment: Is she confident the Government is adequately supporting whānau in hardship through COVID-19?Hon JAN TINETTI (Minister of Internal Affairs) on behalf of the Minister for Social Development and Employment: Yes. This Government is deeply committed to ensuring New Zealand is the best place in the world to be a child and addressing family poverty is essential in achieving this. The Government has been proactive and responsive to hardship through the pandemic. Following the original COVID-19 outbreak in March 2020 where the Government invested $80 million over three years into community support and resilience we have also supported the sector to respond to COVID with an additional $38.15 million during our response to Delta. We have also extended the eligibility criteria for hardship assistance so that families on low wages can receive hardship assistance from the Ministry of Social Development and Employment. The rapid roll-out of the wage subsidy has also kept New Zealanders in work. Because of this we have seen unemployment remain low and only a small rise in the number of people receiving job seeker assistance. We know we're not out of the woods yet and will continue to keep an eye on what is happening and respond where there is a need.Jan Logie: Would extending the in-work tax credit component of the Working for Families package to beneficiaries make a more significant reduction in poverty levels than the Government's recently announced package?Hon JAN TINETTI: COVID-19 has been tough on families and has contributed to the increase in the cost of living. Increasing support for low and middle income families to help cover the basics is a fair thing to do. Working for Families tax credits were scheduled for an inflation increase on 1 April and we have put in additional money to make an increase more substantial. This change will mean that 346 families are estimated to be better off by an average of $20 per week. This change combined with our already announced benefit changes and indexation will mean that families with children will be significantly better off from 1 April.Jan Logie: Why does the Government continue to discriminate against families with tamariki who are unable to work 20 hours or more because they have care obligations or for reasons of health or disability?Hon JAN TINETTI: This Government has a range of supports that go into supporting those particular families. This action that I've just spoken about is just one of the actions that the Government has taken to improve family incomes and support people with need.Jan Logie: What is her response to the Child Poverty Action Group who said Overall low-income families will be just $5 per child better off in April next year than they would've been without this announcement [and] … well short of the recommendations of the Welfare Expert Advisory Group"?Hon JAN TINETTI: As far as the recommendations from the welfare advisory group Working for Families is still under review and this was extra money that was put into an existing change in order to make a bigger difference for families. More information on the Working for Families review will be released next year.Jan Logie: Does she acknowledge that some families will actually be worse off because the Government decided to increase abatement rates to Working for Families to help fund the $5 increase to other struggling families?Hon JAN TINETTI: No families will be worse off because of these changes. This is about targeting those people who are of the lowest income and making sure that we are absolutely targeting those people who are most in need.Jan Logie: Is it true that currently the Government is offering less lockdown-related support to low-income families than it did last year even though the cost of essentials has gone up and inequity has increased?Hon JAN TINETTI: If this was all we were talking about and all that this Government has done to support those families with the greatest need then yes there might be an issue but this is one of a raft of packages that is supporting those families that are most in need. This is around the changes that have been made to Working for Families as it stands already. This is around also aspects and packages like our school lunch programme and like free period products like the women's fund that has gone into support those women in the greatest need. There is a full range of packages that are going in to help these families.Jan Logie: Point of order Mr Speaker. That was a great answer but to a different question. My question was about less lockdown-related support. It was about the whole—SPEAKER: I think that was answered in the first sentence.Jan Logie: Mr Speaker—SPEAKER: We're not going to discuss it. I think it sort of—that may have been the case but the member should consider."