‘Hassles’ ended?
Advertisements is most metropolitan newspapers saying that “SociJ Welfare maintenance hassles end on March 31” are aimed at advertising the new Social Security Amendment Act, which conies into ( ."ect on Wednesday. ; ' The acting-director of the Department of Social Welfare said the new act, which replaced the Social .Security Act, 1964, was intended to streamline the system of paying maintenance for. dependant children after a marriage had broken up* > • Under the , new act* 'the term “maintenance” had been superseded by the word “contribution;” and there was a new simpler system for assessing how much of a contribution 'the spouse was liable to pay. ; Apart from the economic considerations of the new scheme, there were ‘ several advantages, he said:
“For. a start, the new* act allows for self-assessmjnt of
the amount the liable parent has to pay,” Mr Miller said. “That way, they can see, with the help of an officer from the department, how the final contribution is arrived at.” Second, there was a for-
mula to allow the contributor to pay in respect of the maintenance of the children onlyi .if he or she desired.
This should mean that protracted bartering, using the<department as the go-be-tween, as to whether anything was'being paid to the spouse as well as ..to the children should now be
eliminated“From the social point of view, maintenance disputes between the husband <arid wife in' an adversary situation should become a thing of the past,” Mr Miller said. The - various methods, under the act, for assessing the amount the liable spouse had to pay were -fairer and simpler, -than in he said,. .
But the .chairman of 'the branch of Equal Parental Rights (Mr J. E. Burson)-is not so sure. Maintenance hassles would not end on March 31, as claimed, he said. Furthermore, the wording
that parents would no longer pay “maintenance.” but a “contribution” to the department, misled parents ' into
thinking they could make any contribution they thought appropriate. “It seems that the advertisements are- a subtle way of getting people to make contact with the department
to see if they can get more money, out of them,” Mr Burson said. “I have no objection to parents fulfilling their maintenance obligations, but I do object to these methods.” Mr Burson said his association planned to run advertisements" in both Christchurch newspapers claiming that-the department’s adverjwas
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Press, 28 March 1981, Page 6
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390‘Hassles’ ended? Press, 28 March 1981, Page 6
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