Child poverty

Lindsay Mitchell ( Letters, June 12) thinks that she has proved that all families need to do to prevent child poverty is to stay together.

It’s like Prime Minister John Key saying that families with paid work do better, therefore the solution for the poverty of families on benefits is for them to get a job.

She implies that Government support of sole parents has produced more of them and thus caused more child poverty. Voila, get rid of the benefit and marriages would not break up. The children will be happy ever after. No understanding that marriage is a dangerous place for so many women and children. Fortunately most New Zealanders are more mature in their thinking and her Families First report is failing to get traction.

Her sweeping statement that Working for Families is a subsidy to employers, however, cannot go unchallenged. Working for Families for the young is as vital as NZ super for the old. To New Zealand’s shame, Working for Families offers poor support for the worst-off families on benefits or casual work. Susan St John, Child Poverty Action Group spokesperson for Fix Working for Families

Mitchell demonstrates her lack of knowledge about social science. She says that increasing poverty is correlated with increases in sole parents. Her statement makes the point clearly – the link is a correlation; it does not demonstrate a cause and it is a pity she doesn’t understand this very important scientific distinction. Unfortunately she disproves her own argument. It is worth noting, too, that on the latest statistics, just under half of those children in poverty live in two-parent households and almost 40 per cent are in households with their parent in paid work. Aside from her confused reasoning, the facts don’t stack up either. Associate Professor Mike O’Brien, School of Counselling, Human Services and Social Work, University of Auckland.