NZCCSS has urged politicians to shift toward more child-centred social welfare, at a Social Services Select Committee hearing today.

The hearing to consider the ‘Social Security Legislation Rewrite Bill’ offered a timely opportunity to make income support more ‘child-centred,’ said NZCCSS policy adviser Paul Barber.

The Bill should also to shift into line with Minister Hon Anne Tolley's recent changes to make Child, Youth and Family, more focused on children's needs, say NZCCSS.

And the new law must aim to be consistent with the Vulnerable Children’s Act 2014, they say, by demonstrating that it will be ‘improving the social and economic wellbeing’ of vulnerable children.

“Clauses around additional dependent children that place work obligations on women with very young children; sanctions for not disclosing the father of a child, and the arbitrary claw-back of $25 per week from Temporary Additional Support, are just three of the worst examples in a Bill that in its current form is anything but child-centred,” said Paul Barber.

NZCCSS has also questioned the proposed bill’s lack of provision for inflation adjustments across all benefits, or for the thresholds for Accommodation Supplement or additional earnings while on a benefit.

As the voice for church-based social service agencies working with the neediest families in Aotearoa New Zealand, NZCCSS believes the best option is for benefit levels to be pegged to a percentage of average wages. That way, people unable to get into paid work will not face a widening income gap that leaves them unable to get by.

“…our recent Vulnerability Report shows that families with children are high amongst those who are really struggling in this country,” says Paul Barber.

“The welfare system is failing those children and their families, denying them access to sufficient income and leaving them without adequate food, clothing, healthcare or housing.”

NZCCSS would like to see the Government take a more 21st-Century approach to social welfare, in line with the principles set out in the Welfare Justice For All report of the 2010 Alternative Welfare Working Group.

“Welfare …needs to be based on the values of interdependence, social cohesiveness and the common good,” said Paul Barber.

“The current work-focused approach is inadequate, and any rewrite should be based on broader and more robust principles…

“to make it clear that the purpose of the legislation is to reduce poverty and to place a clear duty on the Ministry of Social Development to ensure all those receiving support receive all that they are entitled to.”

Today’s NZCCSS’s submission echoes not only the social service agencies' perspective, but also the NZ churches’ repeated calls for a compassionate response to the needs of people living on the margins of our society.

The NZCCSS submission on the Social Security Rewrite Bill urges MPs to choose fairer and more hopeful options to support people in the greatest need.  

The submission is available in full at nzccss.org.nz/publications/