Have more kids

About 60 percent of families with young children are going to be better off after the budget according to Michael Cullen. According to Prebble, most working families will miss out.

They are both right. Up to half of working families with dependant kids will miss out also - just because they don't have enough kids to supplement their $45,000 income. No one will get more than $100.00 a week. I suspect many won't even get half that.

What Cullen didn't say is when the working and non working poor will be better off - this year or next year. What he also didn't say is how much the average family will be better off, nor in what way - ie will they get family support assistance from IRD or assistance from the Department of Work and Income - or both. Nor did he say how many children come from one low-income working families - the families most likely to benefit. Nor did he say that a third of families with dependant children are dependant on the Department of Work and Income for support, and many of these families are on the DPB.

But what he did say was that 50,000 families with dependant children who currently don't get any assistance will do so some time after the budget.That can only mean two things: An increase of the income threshold for family support or changes to supplementary assistance from DWI. Oh yeah, a third thing - some families are going to qualify just because mum is planning to adopt, foster or become pregnant, particularly if she's having triplets.

And the more kids families have the more they`ll get - if they know to apply for assistance. They are the working poor.

If the Government is to is ratchet up the family support entitlement or make more people entitled to it by increasing the income threshold, there may be a bigger gap between work and benefits, but not so much of a gap between low income workers and beneficaries, as beneficares will also be entitled to any increase.

To close the gap between beneficaries and low income earners, the Government will have to provide a greater increase to working families to make work pay.

My advice to the lowest income working families: Have kids now.

And on that note, come back tomorrow when I hope to do an assessment of the select commite report on the Care of Children bill. It's due tomorrow.