Purpose
This research brief addresses the following questions:
- How are children affected by section 70A? Existing reporting on section 70A focuses on parents affected. Here, we examine how many children are affected by section 70A reductions, for how long and at what ages, and their profile. We use research data which can provide slightly different counts to monitoring data, and for this reason we round counts to the nearest 500. Our focus is on children affected by deductions – exemptions are not examined.
- How might removal of section 70A impact on children affected by reductions? Removal of benefit reductions would raise family incomes. How would this be expected to impact on outcomes for affected children?
- How else could claims for child support be encouraged? We explore evidence from overseas jurisdictions on the effects of passing child support through to parents on benefits, and changes associated with an Early Intervention
Programme that operated in New Zealand in the 2000s, which may offer some insights into the potential response to improved information provision and facilitation of child support claims.
Key Results
At the end of June 2018, 25,500 children were in families affected by section 70A reductions (9,500 of these children – one-third – were not themselves the subject of a deduction).
The 25,500 children who were in families affected at this date make up an estimated 2.3 per cent of all children in New Zealand.
The proportion of New Zealand children who were ever in families affected is much larger. Among children born in 2010-2011, an estimated 11 per cent of all children ever present in New Zealand by age six were in a family affected by section 70A benefit reductions at some time.
One-quarter of the children ever affected by reductions were affected for three or more of their first six years.
The proportion affected at any given month-end was highest in early childhood.
Section 70A benefit reductions disproportionately affect children already at high risk of persistent poverty and adverse childhood experiences.
Children in families affected were more likely to come to the attention of the care and protection system.