The cost of breakfast

Stuff reports;

It can cost parents less than 50 cents a day to give their child breakfast, but principals say most families who send their children to school hungry cannot afford to feed them.

Really. I’d welcome one solid example of a family who can’t afford 40c a day for breakfast. By a solid example I mean full details of their income and expenditure.

But Hamilton beneficiary and mother-of-two, Ali, says she battles every week to put potatoes, rice and Weet-Bix on the table and petrol in the car with the $38 she has left after rent, bills and loan repayments.

The Waikato Times has found that a basic breakfast of Weet-Bix and milk, peanut butter on toast, or porridge costs between 20 and 39 cents a day per child – between $1.43 and $2.73 a week.

And the DPB pays $295 a week in the hand plus $157 family tax credit is $452 a week. Breakfast for two kids is $3 to $6 a week from that or around 1%.

INCOME:

$293 from Winz, plus $120 rent assistance.

EXPENSES:

$285 rent. $30 electricity. $60 loan repayments to the bank and people to whom she owes money.

$38 left for petrol, food and unplanned expenses.

They appear to have left out the $157 family tax credit. Did the reporter not ask, or does Ali not mention it, or has she failed to register for it?