I know at the top you are seeing great sights but we at the bottom, we too should have rights - Dr Seuss
Please support CPAG’s legal challenge in the Court of Appeal
28 - 29 May 2013, Cnr Molesworth & Aitken Streets, Wellington
Begins 10am on the 28 May - be there if you can and spread the word!
Many low income families are left out of parts of Working for Families package that was supposed to reduce child poverty. Their children do not enjoy the same tax-funded support to eat well, keep healthy, warm and dry, and to participate in school activities and sport as others. Their parents often work in a casualised labour market and may be on a benefit. Meeting rigid work tests for the child payment (misleadingly) called the In Work Tax Credit is often not possible. The poorest families in New Zealand miss out on at least $60 a week, a lot of money that is rightfully theirs.
Private charity alone cannot solve this problem and we will not see change in our disgraceful child poverty figures until we return to the principle long ago held dear by New Zealanders that all children have a fair go, that no child is left out. Maori and Pasifika children have high poverty rates and make up one half of the 270,000 in poverty in New Zealand so they are affected disproportionately.
This case is complex and the Court of Appeal hearing represents the culmination of detailed and technical legal work over many years. We argue that the Working for Families package went through no public consultation process - no green paper, no white paper, no select committee and it was passed into law in one day. No account was taken of the 230,000 children who would miss out, despite New Zealand’s human rights obligations to protect all children.
We are seeking a declaration that the In Work Tax Credit is unjustified discrimination. By doing so the principle of equal treatment of all children will be upheld. Such a decision will begin the long journey back to affirming the basic values of all New Zealanders and provide a guide for needed policy changes.
A child's potential is a terrible thing to waste.
Child Poverty Action Group is an independent charity working to eliminate child poverty in New Zealand. CPAG works on behalf of the 270,000 New Zealand children whose well-being and future is compromised by their meagre standard of living.
"Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better, it is not", Dr Seuss.
Preventing, Mitigating or Solving Child Income Poverty? The Expert Advisory Group 2012 Report.
Special Issue on Child Poverty, Policy Quarterly, Vol.9(2).
Assoc Prof Susan St John (QSO) takes a close look at the the Final Report from Children's Commissioner's Expert Advisory Group on Soultions to Child Poverty.
Published May 2013
Each year, CPAG provides an alternative, child focused analysis of the budget.
In 2013, we are pleased to provide the public with a variety of resources - including a 10 page budget analysis and presentations from our nationwide Post-budget breakfasts.
Video clips of CPAG Budget Breakfast presentations will also be available shortly.
Our guiding principle, is the right of every child in New Zealand to security, food, shelter, education and healthcare. Child Poverty Action Group
