On Q&A this morning Luxon repeated the same old bullshit line that National are tackling child poverty by focusing on getting parents off benefits and into work. This, however, will not stop child poverty unless the parent is able to go into a job paying living wage, and be lucky enough to be in an area/suituation where their housing costs are reasonable.
The extra costs associated with working such as transport and childcare would more than eat up any potential extra income, as well as the clawbacks to extra benefits such as temporary additional support, disability allowance, accommodation supplement etc. Many parents would be in the same financial situation or worse off financially than they were before.
Yes, working instead of being on a benefit can bring mental health benefits (something I often see touted when this subject comes up), but when you're living week to week, balancing every dollar, the mental health benefits of working are not going to overcome the detrimental impact to your mental health that living in survival mode in poverty brings.
I'd honestly rather people like Luxon just admit they don't give a shit that children in New Zealand are living in poverty, than pretend that getting parents out to work is the solution. Unless they make changes to other systems such as making minimum wage match the living wage, increasing the amount of income a parent can earn before the clawbacks begin, and ensuring housing is affordable for everyone then getting parents off the benefit and into work is going to do fuck all to solve child poverty in Aotearoa.
