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8 Feb 2008
CPAG's Claire Dale says New Zealand does not need to continue to be a place where unaffordable credit is the only kind always within easy reach of families without enough income to live on.
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16 Nov 2006
Donna Wynd gives an overview of the latest benefit reform proposal, the "Working NZ" package - and notes some of its implications for families with children.
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26 Jul 2006
Donna Wynd argues that we need to take a harder look at the deeper causes of our high rates of domestic violence and child homicide, if we are to avoid needless deaths in the future.
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9 Apr 2006
Rather than reversing existing disadvantage, the burden of discrimination built in to the new In Work Payment (IWP) will fall particularly hard on Maori and Pasifika families, says author Donna Wynd.
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28 Nov 2005
Read a summary of CPAG's case to date, to the Human Rights Review Tribunal.
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31 Aug 2005
Amy Cruickshank finds that only a relatively small proportion of society would benefit significantly from tax policies involving income-splitting, while those families in greatest need would receive little or no additional assistance.
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30 Oct 2003
You may have the impression that the overall tax take has increased. In fact, it has fallen in relative terms. Between 1996 and 1999 the tax take averaged 32.4% of GDP, dropping to 31.6% of GDP in 2000-2002. Spending has fallen further, as successive governments have not adequately adjusted assistance for low income families as prices have increased. As a result in New Zealand, a society that has long believed in a fair go for all, children are increasingly dying in hospitals from diseases of poverty. Many more will be crippled by such diseases and be incapable of working. An even larger number will suffer from chronic illness. Many children will go hungry, have their schooling disrupted and live in stressful homes. These children are not getting a chance to develop and contribute to society.
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30 Sep 2003
Why can New Zealanders not see the importance of adequate tax-based and universal child benefits? Other countries rightly view financial support for families with children as fundamental to preventing, and dealing with, child and family poverty. The Australian system, for example, is far simpler, more generous and humane than ours.
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30 Apr 2003
Using the government's own information, three out of every ten New Zealand children live in poverty. These children are less likely than their peers to grow up to become healthy, able adults. Given the lifelong problems it causes, child poverty is one of the most serious threats to New Zealand's future prosperity.
If a family depends on government benefits, then the children are doubly disadvantaged. Only low-income families which receive no benefit income at all are eligible to receive the Child Tax Credit ($15 per week per child). Approximately 300,000 of the most needy children in New Zealand are being punished because of the source of their family's income.
While in opposition, Labour promised to address this discrimination, yet has done nothing about it. The Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG) has taken the case against the Child Tax Credit to the Human Rights Commission and awaits a decision on its legality.
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30 Jun 2002
Information collected by the Child Poverty Action Group suggests quite strongly that overcrowded housing and unstable housing arrangements are a significant cause (and perhaps the most significant cause) of the both poor health status and low levels of educational achievement of New Zealand's most vulnerable children. Providing these children with decent affordable housing is the most important step that can be taken to improve the wellbeing and prospects of these children.
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30 Apr 2002
The Child Poverty Action Group has become increasingly concerned by the evidence of deteriorating child health in Auckland and other parts of the country. This backgrounder has been put together by members Assoc. Professor Innes Asher, Head of Starship Children's Hospital Respiratory Service, Dee Parks, health manager and researcher, and Dr Carolyn Dakin, Paediatric Respiratory Specialist.
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30 Nov 2001
The impact of social hazards on children and young people is deeply concerning. Each year in New Zealand through second hand smoke, drug use and alcohol, thousands of children and young people become ill, die, or suffer brain damage, at huge cost to their families and society. Gambling seriously undermines family income and may adversely affect the behaviour of family members. All these hazards occur much more commonly in poor families, where risk-taking behaviour may be a manifestation of desperation. To reduce the prevalence of these social hazards there needs to be appropriate legislation and education, combined with government policies which reduce poverty and its effects.
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30 Jul 2001
Despite well-documented evidence of increasing child poverty in New Zealand, little attention is being paid to preventative measures aimed at supporting family incomes. The neglect of family assistance is one of the factors responsible for a rise in the incidence and severity of child poverty in New Zealand. This discussion document analyses the effect on families of the failure to adequately adjust income support for inflation, and the effect of increased targeting of the payment.
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30 Mar 2000
Child Poverty Action Group takes strong exception to the recent attempts by the IRD at social marketing. In September, October and November 1998, the IRD ran a controversial TV advertisement depicting a boy who apparently missed out on soccer because of the non-payment by his father of child support. We are particularly concerned that factual accuracy has been ignored, and children have been used inappropriately. This backgrounder is a follow up to the complaints made by CPAG in 1998, which were never resolved satisfactorily.
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30 Dec 1999
A briefing paper to the Labour Government on issues relating to child poverty.
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30 Sep 1999
A backgrounder on the deteriorating health of our children by Dr Innes Asher, Paediatrician at the Starship Children's Hospital and Senior Lecturer in Paediatrics at the University of Auckland, who has worked in child health for 25 years.
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30 Aug 1999
A criticism of the current policies for the support of students. A large debt accumulation when the student's family already have few, or no assets can be a major disincentive. Already we see enrolment by Maori students at Auckland University falling. They were 7.5 % of all students in 1996 but only 6.7% in 1998. This is particularly concerning as participation by Maori in tertiary education is already low. The loans scheme helps perpetrate the insidious widening of the income distribution and the poverty that affects so many families in New Zealand today.
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30 Jun 1999
A study to determine any association between the socio-economic status of schools and the amount of donations they received from the Telecom New Zealand Ltd. School Connection programme.
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30 Jun 1999
This paper forms the first part of a two part backgrounder on Work and Income (WINZ). It documents the experiences of some beneficiaries with WINZ and Income Support. All quotes are the words of women parenting alone and on Domestic Purposes Benefits who contributed to a Massey University doctoral research project on housing completed by Sharon Milne in 1998 entitled “Shifting Ground”.
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30 Nov 1998
A backgrounder outlining the concerns of children's advocacy groups about the IRD's controversial TV campaign on child support.
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