On Q&A, outgoing Children’s Commissioner Claire Achmad told Jack Tame the idea that work alone will lift children out of poverty is a “fallacy”.
Yet the US evidence says the opposite.
NZ has a very high rate of sole-parent benefit dependency. So did the US. The two countries share the family breakdown of African Americans and Māori. The Māori ex-nuptial birthrate is currently 81 per cent and Māori make-up 51 per cent of sole parent beneficiaries (with a recorded ethnicity).
Under a Democratic administration the US reformed its welfare benefit for families (not specifically but frequently headed by a single parent) in 1996. AFDC – Aid for Families with Dependent Children – became TANF – Temporary Assistance for Needy Families. Time limits and work requirements were introduced.
Here’s what happened:
Achmad wants both wages and benefits to increase. But what about the gap between them needed to incentivise work? And has she chosen to ignore NZ research that shows children in poor families whose source of income comes from the market fare much better than children in poor families whose income comes from the government?
To summarise, the findings show that poor children reliant on government transfers, when compared with poor children reliant on market incomes, have lower living standards and a number of compounding shortfalls that can be expected to place them at greater risk of negative outcomes.
Claire Achmad has no understanding of behavioural economics. Or any other kind of economics. She sat with Jack Tame on Q&A talking like a clone of Jacinda Ardern. The similarity of ill-informed ideas, expression thereof and mannerisms was astounding. Of course her appointment couldn’t be extended. Her advocacy is thoroughly misguided and to that extent, would only ever worsen children’s life chances in general. Perhaps her recent vacuous virtue-signaling campaign should serve to illustrate just how badly she needed to go. Her petition Dear Children gathered, after seven months, the grand total of 4,385 signatures. Not even her fellow travellers were roused.
This article was originally published on the author’s blog.
