$5.5M welfare vote cut
PA Wellington About $5.5 million will be pruned from the Social Welfare vote after a review of Government spending, said the Minister of Social Welfare, Mrs Hercus, yesterday. But the savings did not include any proposals to cut staff numbers, she said.
Ministers have been considering in recent weeks how they can prune another 31 billion from the Budget deficit.
These cuts come after earlier savings announced in May to reduce Government spending by more than $BOO million. Mrs Hercus has already said cutting staff had been considered but she had now been able to make the necessary reductions without having to do so.
The cuts will be made in five areas.
Ten of the department’s family homes will be closed. The department owned 168 family homes in which groups of up to six children and young persons were cared for in the community by specially recruited foster parents.
But some of the homes were poorly located and not well used, Mrs Hercus said.
The department will also now charge for using its training facilities, now used by other departments and private groups when they are not needed by the Social Welfare Department.
It has also been decided to abolish social-work bursaries, which have been on top of normal tertiary support to encourage people into social-work training at the tertiary level. But Mrs Hercus said in practice they had not been well targeted and had created equity anomalies with the vast majority of social-work students who received only normal tertiary grants. The Social Advisory Council and Handicapped Children Boards will also be abolished as announced in the recent quango review.
There will also be a rationalisation of the department’s institutional care programme with the intention of switching away from institutional care of children and young people to family care within communities.
'Mrs' Hercus said several other possible expenditure review initiatives were still being considered. But they would not affect staff numbers.
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Press, 19 July 1986, Page 1
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325$5.5M welfare vote cut Press, 19 July 1986, Page 1
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