Women’s Incomes and Well-being

Current Policy:
The Women’s Rights Party advocates for income support while raising our children or caring for our elders, recognising that mothering and caring is work and contributes to society.

Add:
The Women’s Rights Party supports the campaign of the Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG) to reform the Working for Families (WFF) package, in order to support all lower income families, and to lift the poorest families out of poverty.  In particular discrimination against beneficiary families, many of whom are headed by single mothers, should be removed.

Many of the poorest members of our society are women and children, often in families headed by single mothers. The denial of critical parts of the Working for Families package to anyone who receives a benefit, entrenches this poverty, and divides some of the poorest women and children in society from the rest of society.

Nearly a fifth of all children in New Zealand, 220,000 children, live in poverty, More than 200,000 children live in families for whom a benefit is the main source of income, and they are four times more likely than other children to live in poverty (material hardship). These figures reflect the fact that many mothers are also living in poverty. Women and children who are Māori, Pacifica or disabled are especially likely to be locked into material hardship.

Discrimination against beneficiaries contravenes our obligations under the Convention of the Rights of the Child.

A package aimed at supporting the financial needs of families, should value and support all women’s mothering. It should not attempt to pressure the poorest of mothers, including those with young children, into paid work; by depriving them of essential support if they are not in paid work.

A key proposal of the CPAG is to fold the In Work Tax Credit (IWTC) into the Family Tax Credit (FTC), which is available for all low to middle income families. This would be an effective first step towards greater social equity for mothers and children. It would help to quickly lift some of the poorest mothers and children out of poverty.

The following proposals from the CPAG are also worthy of consideration:

• Index annual increases of WFF with annual wage increases. This will help maintain social equity.
• Raise abatement thresholds and reduce abatement rates for those in paid work, which will facilitate mothers to undertake paid work and raise their incomes.
• Change the name, WFF, to make it clear that this this income support is available for all families who need it, not only those in paid work.