Mr Young defends D.P.B. recipients

Press, 21 April 1982, Page 10

Mr Young defends D.P.B. recipients

PA Wellington People receiving the domestic-purposes benefit have been defended- by the Minister of Social Welfare (Mr Young). He said at a meeting of the Taranaki Aged People's Welfare Council that of all the groups receiving socialwelfare payments, “it seems to me that the most misunderstood and maligned group would have to be the approximately 40.000 domestic purposes beneficiaries."

There were criticisms and complaints that many beneficiaries received money they were not entitled to. Mr Young said. “A lot of wild claims are made about it . . . 'thousands of unmarried ' mums have got pregnant so thej' can go on the benefit .... as do many girls just out of school or still at school . . .. once a woman goes on it she is there for life ... many women have their boyfriends living with, and supporting, them while they are on a

benefit ... it is causing the breakdown of marriages’." Mr Young said that these assertions bore little relation to the facts when compared with information obtained from research and departmental statistics.

The incidence of young women receiving the benefit "is vastly lower than commonly thought. In fact it is actually decreasing.” This indicated a lessening of a problem.

In spite of opinions to the contrary, the benefit was not regarded as a long-term one. The average length of time a woman, or a man, received the benefit was two years and 10 months. This "indicated that for most women, the benefit was a short-term measure to give them financial security while they sorted out their lives after a long-term relationship had broken up.

Mrs Ann Hercus. the Labour Party member of Parliament "for Lyttelton, said at a meeting ’ of the National Organisation of

Women that people who raised children alone should be praised and supported, not condemned.

It was "blatant hypocrisy” for people to talk about the importance of the family on the one hand but to demand cuts in the welfare vote and an end to so-called bludging. It had to be acknowledged openly that the State had a role in raising children.

Mrs Hercus said, “The State has an investment in the rearing of the future generation of citizens. It is time we developed a nonselective and non-hypocriti-cal commitment to that responsibility.”

Mrs Hercus said that a great diversity of family units existed, the failure of the Government to introduce an innovative and coherent family policy was one of its main failings.