March 31, 2015
Benefit rise a mean joke
Some benefits go up today, but poverty activists are calling them a mean April Fool’s joke.
Former Green MP Sue Bradford from Auckland Action Against Poverty says benefits need to be lifted to levels people can actually live on.
Today’s rise in the working age benefit is just half a percent, or $1.07 a week for a single person on Jobseeker Support aged 25 or older.
The base rate for a sole parent will go up by $1.53 a week.
Ms Bradford says the increases are low because the benefit is linked to inflation, which is low at present.
Superannuation and veterans’ pensions go up by just over 2 percent because they are linked to the average wage.
Ms Bradford says politicians need to stop wringing their hands about child poverty and do something about the incomes of adults who are left destitute because of policies aimed at making the income gap between paid work and benefits as wide as possible.
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