Beyer Georgina: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
Beyer Georgina: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
[Volume:623;Page:18370] 
3.  
GEORGINA BEYER (Labour—Wairarapa) 
 to the  
Minister for Social Development and Employment 
: How will New Zealand families be better off as a result of the Working for Families changes taking effect from 1 April this year? 
Hon STEVE MAHAREY (Minister for Social Development and Employment) 
: 
 From 1 April this year 260000 families or 55 percent of households with children will be eligible for extra money to help with the costs of raising a family. Family support will go up by $25 for the first child and by $15 for each additional child. The accommodation supplement will also rise for a number of families particularly those in the central and North Auckland areas. The child component of benefits will become part of family support payments from 1 April making it easier for parents to take that financial support with them as they move from benefit into work. That is all part of our $1.1 billion per year Working for Families package. Eighty thousand households have already benefited from changes to childcare and the accommodation supplement as of 1 October last year. 
Georgina Beyer 
: What steps is the Government taking to ensure that New Zealand families receive what they are entitled to as a result of the Working for Families package? 
Hon STEVE MAHAREY 
: Radio advertising started this week and will be followed by advertisements in newspapers and on television over the next month to raise awareness of the 1 April increases to family assistance and the accommodation supplement and to the 3 October increases to childcare. We need to get the message out to as many families as possible to call the freephone lines and check their entitlements. The 1 April changes will benefit almost all families earning less than $45000 a year and a substantial number of families earning between $45000 and $70000. We do not want anyone to miss out. 
John Key 
: Is it not a fact that those low-income families who take their Working for Families entitlements on a fortnightly basis but who underestimate their anticipated incomes will be forced to repay those debts to the Inland Revenue Department—remembering that in a similar programme in Australia only 4 percent of families calculated their incomes correctly—and is it not a fact that those Kiwi families who decide to take their payments on a lump-sum basis are likely to run up credit card debts in anticipation of bonuses they will never get so how can that possibly be helping low-income families by burdening them with debt? 
Mr SPEAKER 
: There were three questions there. Two can be answered. 
Hon STEVE MAHAREY 
: Those hypothetical questions raised by Mr Key have of course been thought through by the Inland Revenue Department in relation to how it will deal with its clients. We expect there will not be those problems. 
Sue Bradford 
: What specific steps will the Minister be taking to help bring all New Zealand children out of poverty given that the Government has acknowledged that the Working for Families package will not address the needs of two-thirds of the children currently estimated as living in poverty? 
Hon STEVE MAHAREY 
: This is a specific step aimed at lifting children out of poverty and as has been said by independent commentators once this package is fully implemented New Zealand will be in a situation very similar to that found in countries such as the Netherlands or Denmark. In other words we would be pulling ourselves into line with some of the richest countries in the world with policies of redistribution such as this Government has. That is a huge step forward. This is a specific step. 
John Key 
: I seek leave to table an article in the  
Sydney Morning Herald  
entitled: “Family debt trap even worse—Labor” which shows that in the first 2 years of the same programme in Australia 1.3 million Australian families ended up owing a billion dollars in debt. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: Leave is sought to table that article. Is there any objection? There is.