Lindsay Mitchell: The road to hell is paved with good intentions

The road to hell is paved with good intentions

The Child Poverty Action Group has a list of goals it believes will improve outcomes for New Zealand children.

They are:

• Substantially improve core benefits;
• Remove harsh sanctions that impact on children;
• Ensure that all benefits and all part of Working for Families (WFF) are indexed annually to prices and wages;
• Remove the hours of paid work criteria from the WFF In-Work Tax Credit and extend it to all low-income families;
• Treat adults in the benefit system as individuals without penalising them for being in a partnership;
• Focus on what will give children better outcomes and less on moving their carers into paid work; and
• Ensure that applicants receive all the assistance to which they are entitled.

Lindsay Mitchell: CPAG research inconclusive at best

New research from the Child Poverty Action Group, who are campaigning to increase benefit levels, finds there is,

 "no evidence of an association between benefit receipt and distinct substantiated rates of child abuse."   

And later under 'Conclusion', "...benefit income does not appear to be related to rates of child abuse."

How did they arrive at this?

Lindsay Mitchell: CPAG back in court - again

The Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG) is about to return to court for the third time arguing that the In Work Tax Credit should go to beneficiary families. The group has an opinion piece in today's DomPost: 

New Zealand continues to grapple with a poor track record for child poverty and particularly the rising inequality affecting our poorest children. More