July 28, 2020
Benefit system blow to mana
A new poll shows almost half the country supports higher benefit payments regardless of people's relationship status.
UMR Research says 47 percent overall and 53 percent of Labour voters believe people should be able to get income support even if they are in a relationship.
Only 24 percent support the current rules where a working person is expected to support a partner or spouse, and two beneficiaries in a relationship are paid at the equivalent of a single minimum wage.
Janet McAllister from the Child Poverty Action Group says the system needs to treat beneficiaries with respect.
"The whole system needs to be rejigged, decolonised, and based on a principle of whakamana tangata, looking after the people, upholding their mana, not humiliating them and blaming them for not having enough when it is the system itself that hasn't given them enough," she says.
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