This is a popular time of year for party leaders to deliver "state of the nation" speeches so I thought I might look at the state of our welfare nation.
Statistics aren't always reliable. Especially five years out from the last Census, the only time we actually count families and even then, we rely on people providing accurate and honest information.
The following, then, is based on 1/ Projected Families Containing Dependent Children by Family Type and Territorial Authority (published by Statistics New Zealand) and 2/ information provided by the Ministry of Social Development under the Official Information Act.
At August 2005 sixty nine percent (or 113,000 out of 164,500 ) of single parent families with dependent children relied on a benefit. The highest rates are in Northland (85 percent), Bay of Plenty (82 percent) and Gisborne/Hawkes Bay (80 percent).
In 1966 we didn't have the DPB. Only 7 percent of all families with dependent children had a single parent. Today that percentage has risen to about 32. I cannot prove the relationship between the DPB and the growth of one parent families is a causative one. You will have to draw your own conclusions.
(NB Some people on benefits also work part-time but the percentage isn't high. Less than one in four people on the DPB has participated in work some time in the past twelve months.)
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1 comment:
“I cannot prove the relationship between the DPB and the growth of one parent families is a causative one. You will have to draw your own conclusions.”
What other conclusion could be drawn when you only present ONE of the potential factors that may have influenced the growth of one parent families!
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