Budget 2021: Benefit boost of $50 would have doubled

Budget 2021: Benefit boost of $50 would have doubled children out of poverty, Government opted for $20

Monday, August 9th, 2021

The Government considered immediately lifting benefits by $50, a benefit boost would have more than doubled the number of children pulled out of impoverished households.

This would have also doubled the immediate cost of the benefit increase, pushing it above $1 billion.

Ultimately the Government opted to spread the benefit increase over two Budgets, lifting core benefits by $20 from July 1 this year and topping them up next year to lift all benefits by $32 to $55 overall. Read more

Additional reading

News category: New Zealand, News Shorts.

Tags: New Zealand child poverty

When war becomes personal

Our attitudes to war change drastically when it becomes personal. When it is distant, it involves people whose nationality and culture we do not share, and wrongs of whose cause are disputed. But it does not affect us at gut Read more

New ‘human flourishing’ survey links frequent religious practice to life satisfaction

Announcing the results of a new Global Flourishing Study, a consortium of scholars and pollsters led by Gallup said that they found links between religiosity and people’s satisfaction with their lives. Religious influences The study, a joint project of Harvard Read more

Transgender inclusion? World’s major religions take varying stances on policies toward trans people

The Vatican has issued a new document rejecting the concept of changing one’s biological sex. This is a setback for transgender people who had hoped Pope Francis might be setting the stage for a more welcoming approach from the Catholic Read more

CathNews New Zealand