Posts Tagged ‘Income support’

End of Life Choice Act needs more safeguards

Thursday, September 21st, 2023
people with disabilities

Amending the End of Life Choice Act to safeguard people with disabilities is a priority for Te Pāti Māori. The End of Life Choice Act, which legalised euthanasia in 2019, has insufficient safeguards, Te Pāti says. It wants to amend the Act to ensure disabled people are not targeted. The moves are part of Te Read more

Working for Families review – is this the best we can expect?

Monday, August 28th, 2023
Working for Families

For the last two decades critics have seen Working for Families (WFF) as discriminatory, poorly designed, far too complex and woefully ineffective in addressing the worst child poverty. In 2004, CPAG explained what was so wrong in a publication called Cut Price Kids and has been campaigning to fix WFF ever since. After the WEAG Read more

Beneficiaries owe record $2.1 billion to Govt as cost of living soars

Monday, June 13th, 2022

Low income New Zealanders now owe more than $2.1 billion to the Ministry of Social Development as they continue to have to borrow money to survive. The latest figures show beneficiaries owe $200 million more than the same time last year. In this year’s Budget, the Government gave those over 18 and earning $70,000 or Read more

Blistering attack: Struggling families support way off the mark

Monday, May 23rd, 2022
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Support for struggling families, our homeless whanau and those living in poverty has not been up to the task for decades says Bernie Smith, CEO of Auckland’s Catholic Monte Cecilia Housing Trust. He is adamant. We might want to blame COVID and the war in Ukraine for our economic woes, he says. But everyone (except Read more

Thousands more on benefits since lockdown started

Monday, October 18th, 2021

Since the start of the Delta outbreak lockdown, 8500 more people have ended up on the benefit, Ministry of Social Development figures show. While job losses have been nowhere near as severe as the first lockdown in March last year, many thousands of whānau are still struggling to make ends meet, as COVID-19 restrictions remain Read more

Most of us want an increase in income support rates

Thursday, February 25th, 2021

Results of polls show 69 percent of us want the government to increase income support rates for those on low incomes and not in paid work. The UMR poll was commissioned by a super-group of NGOs who are pushing to release families from the severe constraints of poverty. The group includes unions, social service NGOs, Read more