'Penalty' A Hoax September 9, 2004

According to the the Ministry of Social Development, the penalty on sole parents who refuse to name the father of their child will rise by $6 from July next year. However, the family support component of their benefit will rise by a minimum of $25 three months earlier.

"Expressed another way, those parents who won't name the father of their child will receive a slightly smaller increase in their benefit payment than those who do," Lindsay Mitchell, petitioner for a parliamentary review said today.

"It's a nonsense. Clearly the enormous rise in parents who refuse to apply for child support from the non-custodial parent - up from 8,000 in 1993 to around 19,500 today - largely indicates a deliberate choice. The large majority of these parents are the mothers and they are either opting to shut the father out or come to a private arrangement."

"This so-called 'heavier penalty' won't make a blind bit of difference. I don't know why the Ministry bothers."

Lindsay Mitchell petitioner for a parliamentary review of the DPB forms available from www.liberalvalues.org.nz e-mail dandl.mitchell@clear.net.nz

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