Most newborns born onto welfare are Maori

Continuing with Sunday's theme of the gradual decline of the financially independent, working, two-parent, Maori family the chart below shows that 59 percent of newborns added to an existing benefit, usually the DPB, are Maori:

The data is sourced from a cabinet paper.

It represents 4,800 newborns - a five year average over 2006-2010.

The count includes newborns added from the date of their birth,  to a benefit that has been in place for 42 weeks or more, and where there are older children.

Interestingly the paper suggests reduced employment opportunities for men are lessening the likelihood they'll be a family breadwinner. But Pacific people have higher unemployment than Maori and are not particularly over-represented in either their share of the DPB (10 percent)  or the rate of adding children (12 percent).

So that's a crock.


Then over the course of the year in which they are born, many more babies will go onto a newly granted benefit resulting in 21 percent of all babies being dependent by year-end.