Martin Tracey: Social Security (Clothing Allowances for Orphans and Unsupported Children) Amendment Bill — First ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeMartin Tracey: Social Security (Clothing Allowances for Orphans and Unsupported Children) Amendment Bill — First Reading[Sitting date: 25 September 2013. Volume:693;Page:13761. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]TRACEY MARTIN (NZ First): Kia ora Mr Assistant Speaker. I moveThat the Social Security (Clothing Allowances for Orphans and Unsupported Children) Amendment Bill be now read a first time. I nominate the Social Services Committee to consider the bill.There is a story behind this bill and I beg the indulgence of the House to explain the personal connection that has been one of the drivers behind this member’s bill. In the 1940s my mother Anne was 2 years old and living in Christchurch with her 5-year-old brother Barry and their mother Beverley. Their father Jim was away at war. One day Beverley took the kids to the next-door neighbour’s. Nobody knows what she told them but she left the kids there and that was the last time they ever saw their mother. It wouldbe 45 years later that Anne would be able to make contact with people who would speak about Beverley and what had happened to her after the day that she abandoned her children. We now know that Beverley went on to live a completely new life never mentioning her children to her new workmates or friends until her passing from toxaemia in the 1950s.Some months after Beverley left my mother’s paternal grandmother finally became aware of her grandchildren’s circumstances and showed up at that door. Originally she took only Barry with her because Grandfather had said that she could bring the boy home because he could work but to leave the girl. Thankfully a few months later Granny could stand it no longer and she came back to collect little Anne. As life would have it Anne and Barry were loved and cared for by their granny for approximately the next 8 years. The army deducted a shilling from the children’s father’s pay and paid this to their grandmother. When the war was over their father came home. He took time to readjust to life onCivvy Street. He entered a common-law marriage with MaudeMohi and it was another traumatic time for these children when their father arrived to take them to live with him and his new wife in Hastings. My great-grandmother shifted to Napier to follow the children.I recognise today that although each circumstance might be different grandparents are still grandparents and kids are still kids. Nothing has changed but the times we find ourselves in. It is this personal connection and an innate sense of fairness that has been the driver behind this member’s bill under my name.This bill does one thing and one thing only. Bluntly and in a nutshell it says that if a child has been identified as an orphan or an unsupported child then with regard to the clothing allowance eligibility it makes no difference who is caring for them. A child being cared for by kin carers requires no less clothing than a child being cared for by an unrelated adult. However orphans and unsupported children are not eligible to receive the clothing allowance.This member’s bill proposes to give orphans and unsupported children clothing allowance parity with a foster child. Its goal is to have a single section inserted into the Social Security Act new section 29B: “A person who receives an orphan’s or unsupported child’s benefit in respect of a child is also entitled to receive a clothing allowance for that child at the same rate as is determined by the chief executive from time to time under section 363 of the Children Young Persons and Their Families Act 1989.” That is it. That is all this little bill does but what a difference it will make to the lives of these children and their kin carers.Before I enter into the substantive content of this speech I would like to take a moment to acknowledge the previous and current work by the Minister for Social Development in this area. In 2009 it was the Hon Paula Bennett who took the steps required to raise the main payment that caregivers received to match the orphans benefit and the unsupported child’s benefit to those made to foster carers. This Minister also provided 500 respite care places per year for these children in week-long holiday health camps and I know that the kin carers were grateful for this support.I also wish to acknowledge that the Minister and I have had positive interactions around our mutual desire to recognise and support these kin carers who are very often grandparents raising grandchildren. I am grateful to have recently been a member of a ministerial reference group around the allocation of $35 million over the next 4 financial years. That has been set aside in contingency for extended family members caring for children and in recognition of the difficult job that they do. The Minister however will also concede that if all children are not recognised as equal inside legislation then there is a real danger that at the end of that 4-year period kin carers will once again find themselves back at square one.I also want to recognise that we are as a nation in restrictive financial times and that the select committee will have to take these factors into consideration. However there are times and there are issues where fairness and equity particularly where children are concerned must be the drivers of decision making in the first instance and then a can-do lens around funding should be applied.I want to reiterate what this bill seeks to achieve. The intention of this bill is to recognise in statute that an orphan is an orphan whether placed with foster parents or caregivers and that all State support should be based upon the circumstances of the child not the circumstances of the adult. This must be one of the only pieces of legislation where a distinction is based upon blood and not on any other criteria.For a variety of reasons more and more children are finding themselves in the unenviable position of being declared an orphan or an unsupported child by the State. Kin carers are being targeted by social services to step up and take in these children which they do. We should recognise that the majority of kin carers looking after the day-to-day needs of these orphans and unsupported children tend to be grandparents who are now raising their grandchildren.So these kin carers step up only to find that these children are deliberately disadvantaged through lower support due to this very kin relationship. Children are being discriminated against by the State due to circumstances beyond their control. I do not believe that there is a member in this House who would argue that if you are raised by your grandparents or auntie you therefore wear fewer clothes than a child placed with people to whom they are not related. So if we do not argue that then upon what does this discrimination stand?Just to make sure we are all clear on how these children find themselves in these circumstances I would like to outline the criteria for the two separate categories. A child is considered an orphan by the State if their parents have died or cannot be found or when they cannot look after their child because they have a long-term illness or incapacity. A child is considered an unsupported child when their parents cannot support them because of a family breakdown. Children must be expected to be in caregivers’ care for 12 months or more for support even to be accessed. These criteria have raised their own set of issues for those children whose parents are imprisoned for sentences of 3 6 or 9 months and who are placed with caregivers. These children are not eligible even for the base support outlined here but that is for another day.It is worth noting at this point that when a child is supported by the State in either of these circumstances the natural parents are required to pay child support through the Inland Revenue Department child support scheme should they be earning. I would request that the Social Services Committee take this revenue into account when considering this bill and its expenditure.I would also request that the select committee recognise that more than half of these children are reported as having serious physical and psychological problems as a result of the abuse and neglect they experienced prior to coming into their grandparents’ or kin carers’ homes. However research shows us that 86 percent of these children report significant improvement over time and that this is directly attributed to the stability of care the resilience and the commitment of these caregivers. We ask the select committee to consider the cost savings these kin carers facilitate for the State by stepping up to the proverbial plate. It is because these individuals do step up that we as a State are not looking at creating orphanages up and down New Zealand in which to house these close to 10000 children.Reports have also revealed alarming statistics that show that for 40 percent of caregivers their total family income was less than $30000 per annum. Almost 39 percent were solo carers weighted heavily towards women who were particularlyfinancially compromised. Several described their struggle to feed and clothe themselves and the children adequately. One stated a wish not to go to bed hungry and for clothes that fit. The incidence of kinship care varies across cultures with 53 percent of Māori children in need of care placed withwhānau and 59 percent of Pacific Island children placed with fono compared with 31 percent ofPākehā children placed with extended family.This study evidenced that the children inwhānau or family care do well but that the lack of parity around the application of the clothing allowance is contributing to the difficulties their children and their caregivers experience. The State has calculated the rate at which the clothing allowance is required inside certain age brackets for children but the Act creates a situation where if you are related to the person who steps up to look after you then you apparently no longer need that support. There are no other criteria that affect this decision. It is completely based on blood relationship.A Labour Government acknowledged this issue. A National Government has acknowledged this issue. It is time to stop talking about it and time to take action. On behalf of these children and carers I implore all parties in this House to support this bill’s referral to the select committee. I commend the bill to the House.