STUFF.CO.NZ: Prime Minister Helen Clark has unveiled changes to the social welfare system that would allow beneficiaries to earn extra money while still receiving their benefits.
The Labour Party leader told an audience in Hamilton today the new system would help beneficiaries to move back into fulltime work.
From 1 April 2010 beneficiaries would be able to earn an $100 per week on top of their existing benefits, up from $80 currently.
This abatement threshold would be further lifted to $120 by April 2011 and to $140 by April 2012.
The changes were estimated to cost a total of $133 million over the years in question.
The National party released a similar policy earlier this year.
Miss Clark said abatement rates and thresholds had not been adjusted since July 1996.
"It is estimated that around 50,000 New Zealand households who are supplementing their benefit income through part-time work would be able to work longer hours and keep more of what they earn as a result of these proposed changes," she said.
She said Labour's social development policy also included commitments to:
* continue to adjust superannuation to ensure the rate for a married couple was equivalent to at least 66% of the net average ordinary time wage;
* expand the number of community partnerships with Enterprising Communities Grants over the next term; and
* continue the implementation of Pathway to Partnership so that by 2012 all essential services for children, young people and families would be fully funded.
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