More children depend on domestic purposes benefit

Press, 6 November 1986, Page 6

More children depend on domestic purposes benefit

PA Wellington More than 10 per cent of children in New Zealand are being supported by the domestic purposes benefit. Latest figures from the Social Welfare Department show there were 99,902 children included in domestic purposes benefits at March 31 this year.

This is 11 per cent of all children who receive family benefit, which covers almost all the children in New Zealand. The number of benefits being paid at March 31 — 62,570 — is more, than 10 per cent higher than the figure a year earlier, continuing a steadily rising trend in the number of D.P.B. beneficiaries.

In 1969, the first year that separate statistics were kept for D.P.8., 2494 people received it. By 1976, 10 years ago, there were 23,047 people on the benefit. ,'A‘: The cost of has

also increased enormously, from $48.9 million in 1976 to $603.8 million in the latest financial year. Only national superannuation soaks up more social welfare money —* $3341 million in the latest year.

The cost of D.P.B. in 1985-86 was reduced slightly by the $27.9 million paid to the Social Welfare Department under the liable parent contribution scheme, but this was only 41.5 per cent of the amount liable parents were supposed to pay.

The department collected a further $5.6 million under maintenance orders.

The average length of time that a beneficiary spends on D.P.B. is now three years and four months. A study last year showed the average duration of each benefit has been lengthening by about one month in each year for the last few years.

The study .found that 51 per cent of D.P.B. beneficiaries were living apart from their husbands or wives. Almost 95 per cent of these beneficiaries were women and most were in their early 30s. About 61 per cent of all the children of D.P.B. beneficiaries had parents in this group. The next biggest category of beneficiaries was people living apart from de facto husbands or wives — just over 20 per cent of those on D.P.B.

The study said there had been a marked increased in the number of beneficiaries in this category in recent years, though on average they spend much less time on the benefit than other groups.

The third biggest group of beneficiaries was unmarried parents, who made up 18.6 per cent of those on D.P.B. They were 99.3 per cent women andfc were mostly under 3(k-Tn fact, 26 per cent

were aged 20 or under. They tended to spend a little longer on D.P.B. than average. Most of the remaining D.P.B. beneficiaries were women alone in their 50s with no other means of support — almost 5 per cent of beneficiaries — or divorced parents, who made up 2.8 per cent of those on D.P.B.

Just over 10.4 per cent of divorced parents were men, far higher than the 5 per cent over-all average of men on D.P.B.

But men made up almost 70 per cent of the small group who were on the benefit because their husbands or wives had died. The study says most women in this situation would be eligible for widow’s benefit.

Other tiny groups of beneficiaries were those whose de facto spouses had died, people who were married to mental hospital patients, aftd dependants of prisoners.