Beyer Georgina: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
Beyer Georgina: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
[Volume:624;Page:19431] 
3.  
GEORGINA BEYER (Labour—Wairarapa) 
 to the  
Minister for Social Development and Employment 
: What changes to family support will come into effect on 1 April 2005 as part of the Working for Families package? 
Hon STEVE MAHAREY (Minister for Social Development and Employment) 
: 
 This Friday family support rates will increase by $25 a week for the first child and $15 a week for each additional child. This means for instance that a three-child family could be up to $55 a week better off in the hand. The foster care allowance the unsupported child’s benefit and the orphans benefit will all increase by $15 per child. Taken in total Friday’s changes will see some 260000 families—more than half of all New Zealand families—entitled to extra money. 
Georgina Beyer 
: Would these families be better off with a tax cut? 
Hon STEVE MAHAREY 
: No they would not. A two-parent family with two children earning $37440 will gain $40 a week from Friday and $160 per week by the time the Working for Families package is fully implemented. That is more than the amount of total tax that that family pays; so even if we had a fantasy scenario of zero tax that family could not get as much money as they will get from Working for Families. If we take the well-known example of a single-income earner on $55000 a year with four young children that family would gain $149.77 a week from the time the package is fully rolled out. To receive that through tax cuts would mean a flat tax of 9.5 percent. That is what National is promising; that is why it is so ridiculous. 
John Key 
: What does the Minister think about the following statement: “The accommodation supplement or voucher for housing has harmed not helped housing provision for poor New Zealanders including many Maori and Pacific Islanders.”; and is he surprised to learn that that statement was made by the Rt Hon Helen Clark in June 1994? 
Hon STEVE MAHAREY 
: I think it is commonly understood that the introduction of the accommodation supplement was in company with the reduction of State housing the reduction of investment in housing. Thirteen thousand houses were sold off. As the Prime Minister has said it would be much better for this country to be building State houses and having people safely in them than to have an accommodation supplement. But as we have one we are using it to help people. 
Sue Kedgley 
: Can the Minister confirm that those on the special benefit who are often in dire financial straits will see no gains as a result of increases in family support because their benefit will be abated dollar for dollar; and does not “no worse off” in this case just mean “still in dire poverty”? 
Hon STEVE MAHAREY 
: No one will be worse off financially as a result of the changes introduced. Everybody who is involved in these changes will gain. The changes to the special benefit mean that people who are on it will be grandparented so that they retain their income; and people who come on to emergency assistance in the future will come on to the temporary assistance programme. And of course all of those people who have children in their household will gain from 1 April.