September 24, 2014 4:00pm by David Farrar

CPAG calls for policies that already exist

Prime Minister John Key has asked his officials for fresh ideas on tackling child poverty.

On his first day back at Parliament since being re-elected on Saturday, Key said he had ordered Treasury and Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet officials to start presenting new ideas.

‘‘The recognition I think we all have is that there are some extremely poor children who are missing out,’’ Key said yesterday.

‘‘And so then the question is how do you resolve those issues, it’s not straightforward but there will be more you can do.’’

Key said it needed to be done without narrowing the gap between the incomes of those on benefits and those working, to ensure people were still encouraged into work.

Breakfasts in schools, free doctors’ visits for young children and tax credits for low and middle income families were examples of policies that could be used to tackle the problem, as could programmes such as Whanau Ora.

Last week, National released its welfare policy, which included a trial of financial incentives for beneficiaries who come off benefits into work as well as to help with childcare costs while they looked for work or upskilled.

Professor Innes Asher of the Child Poverty Action Group said to tackle child poverty, benefits and Working for Families tax credits needed to be tied to inflation, while the minimum wage needed to catch up to the increase in the cost of living.

Professor Asher doesn’t seem to realise this is already the case. Does this mean CPAG will come out and say they are happy?

Benefits are already inflation adjusted. In fact National passed a law to guarantee this.

WFF payments have been inflation adjusted also. Not 100% they still are, but they have been.

The minimum wage has gone up 19% since 2008 (and 27% after tax) while inflation has been just 14%, so the minimum wage has gone up more than the cost of living.

It doesn’t say much about the credibility of a lobby group, when they get such basic stuff wrong.

It would also be nice if the media fact checked claims.