Call for urgency over Working for Families

New Zealand’s foremost child poverty action group is calling for an independent review of Working for Families, which it says doles out a ‘‘punishment’’ to the children of parents who lose work by removing their in-work tax credit.

The Ministry of Social Development with Inland Revenue, the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, and the Treasury are reviewing Working for Families tax credits.

Child Poverty Action Group spokesperson Susan St John said the ongoing review should be independent, and changes needed to be made urgently.

‘‘In a time of Covid, recession, earthquakes, disaster – when people lose work, they’re really struggling. Their children need support,’’ she said.

‘‘If we leave children in the poverty they are in at the moment, with their Third World diseases ... and all the things that go with poverty, how are they going to be the workforce we need to support the older generation?’’

A spokesperson for Social Development Minister Carmel Sepuloni said there was no end date for the review, although its public consultation was complete.

But St John said poor families – who are more exposed to higher costs for everyday items – needed urgent support. There was a significant RSV outbreak last winter, a preventable disease linked to poverty and overcrowding.

Research has found preschoolaged children have worse health than those over 5, with sudden infant death, poor oral health, skin infections and respiratory infections being key issues.

Older people have a baseline of financial support in the pension, which is adjusted each year to take into account inflation and wage rises. There is also an independent Retirement Commission, which advises the Government.

St John said the same approach should be taken to poor children through Working for Families.

The Labour Government made ‘‘generous’’ increases to the core social welfare benefits last year, and it had also introduced free school lunches and cheaper GP fees, but whether the initiatives had made a meaningful impact on the lives of poor children wouldn’t be seen in the data for some time, St John said.

Meanwhile, the social welfare benefit increases haven’t been enough to counter the major cuts made by the National Government in the 1990s.

‘‘We are reaping the whirlwind of the economic and social policies we have had for the last 30 years ... It’s been brewing for a long time and helps explain why what looks like generous transfers are only a drop in the bucket,’’ St John said.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said the Government did not need an independent commissioner to research policies to improve the lives of poor children.

Stats NZ monitors child poverty – which has been a key focus of her government – and the next government will also be required to meet child poverty targets as a result of 2018 legislation, she said.

‘‘The government statistician [Stats NZ], who has that statutory separation in many ways from government, undertakes measurement around the impacts of all of our policies on poverty. We’ve also funded the chief statistician to undertake more detailed work around poverty persistence.’’

‘‘We are reaping the whirlwind of the economic and social policies we have had for the last 30 years.’’

Susan St John Child Poverty Action Group spokesperson