October 11, 2016
Sanctions entrenching poverty
Auckland Action on Poverty says the National-led Government's punitive approach to welfare is entrenching poverty.
Spokesperson Vanessa Cole says a highly critical report from the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child confirms the Government is failing to address poverty.
She says Maori and Pasifika children suffer some of the highest rates of child poverty, which means the way beneficiaries are punished through benefit reforms is racist and classist.
On one had the Government trumpets a $25 a week increase in benefits for families with children, then takes that off solo mothers who do not or can not say who fathered their child.
"The Government is talking about their reduction in welfare dependency but reducing welfare dependency is just a naive way to say they have cut benefits and forced people into low wage and precarious work, and this work focused nature of welfare does not reduce poverty, it enhances it," Ms Cole says.
She says tackling poverty needs to start with an across the board increase in benefits.
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