Left Further Behind - Child Poverty Action Group

eferral to a budgeting service as a condition for receipt of some hardship grants has led to budgeting
services requesting additional funding from government to meet this demand (New Zealand Herald,
2010).
It is clear from all recent research that children in workless households face the highest risks of
poverty and lower living standards (Johnson, 2011a; Perry, 2009a, 2009b). Paid work would improve
the living standards for those children whose carer could obtain consistent and regular work which
paid an adequate wage. However, the very high proportion of children in benefit households who will
remain in poverty represents the failure of the ‘work first’ and ‘unrelenting focus on work’ approaches.
The failure of work first is also evident in the number of children in poverty in households where at
least one adult is in full-time work. Current approaches to welfare reform mean that those children
will live in even more severe hardship than they do currently. Tellingly, there is no discussion in the
WWG report about the need for Government’s social and economic policies to be focused around
employment and job creation and job growth, a key dimension of both reciprocal obligations and
the ‘work first’ focus. It is here that the responsibilities and individualising aspects of the WWG’s
approach to ‘active citizenship’ are most clearly and starkly revealed.
In the book Why We Need a New Welfare State (2002), Esping-Andersen argues that changing
economic and social frameworks and structures require shifting the basis upon which social security
and income support systems have been built and developed. He argues that the changing nature of
work and issues surrounding children demand changes in government welfare provision. Significantly,
he argues for a welfare framework which provides effective support and protection for all children;
and one in which the changing nature of work is reflected in the regulations linking employment
and welfare support. Running through his discussion is a strong emphasis on ensuring that income
support and social security provisions reduce levels of poverty and contribute to, and enhance,
human well-being. Those aims, goals and objectives are completely missing from the direction of
welfare reform in New Zealand over the last 20 years. Implementation of the recommendations of the
WWG and continued pursuit of the existing directions in welfare reform will only take us further away
from achieving those goals, and broaden and deepen child poverty in New Zealand.
Recommendations
• Review and adjust benefit levels to ensure that families with children are not below the poverty
line;
• Acknowledge the work of caring for dependants by ensuring that this work is treated as being of
equal status to paid work;
• Reject WWG recommendations which fail to meet the above objectives and which treat
beneficiaries as second-class citizens.
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