May 05, 2022
Fairer Future offers plan out of poverty
With the Budget less than a fortnight away, more than 30 groups have come together with a seven step plan to end poverty.
Disability advocacy Huhana Hickey says the Fairer Future coalition’s plan calls on the Government to implement the recommendations of the Welfare Expert Advisory Group’s, which were effectively shelved when they were delivered in 2019.
They include increasing benefits, raising the minimum wage to the living wage, boosting disability allowances, changing relationship rules for beneficiaries, removing sanctions, wiping debt owed to the Ministry for Social Development, and improving access to supplementary assistance.
Dr Hickey says poverty is dividing society.
“Look at the stats – 9 per cent of Pākehā children and their families live in poverty but if we look at Māori and Pasifika, they are at 20 and 25 per cent respectively. That is not a good look for our country and it might be the state has to support some people, and if they do, make it fair,” she says.
Dr Hickey says if action isn’t taken now, there is no way people can expect anything to be done under a National ACT government.