Labour now calls an increase a cut as someone got a bigger increase
Stuff reports:
It may have been unintended, but the Government had effectively passed over a large portion of middle New Zealand, Little said.
“National's Single Child Tax will see a family with one child lose as much as $830 a year in Working For Families payments.
Which is a desperate lie.
Families earning between $44,000 and $59,000 were those affected. Under the Government's package, which was unveiled in Finance Minster steven joyce's maiden budget last week, a single-earner family on $55,000 a year would be $20.38 a week better off.
But a single-earner family on the same income, with one child under 16, would only get an extra $14.18 a week.
So actually they are around $750 a year better off. Claiming they are worse off is like claiming that if you win $800 in Lotto and someone wins $1,000 in Lotto you are $800 worse off.
“Whenever you're putting these packages together, there's always a complexity about it. But i'd be surprised if they understood there's 20,000 odd single-child families that will now be worse off – but that's the reality. “
A lie. They are not. They are $15 a week better off as a minimum and if they get accommodation supplement may be up to $115 a week better off.
Joyce said those families still saw an overall gain, and Labour was failing to see the bigger picture.
“The abatement changes mean they don't get as much from the Working for Families part of the package, but they gain more from other parts of the package, in particular the tax changes. They may also in some cases gain from the Accommodation Supplement Changes.
“It's important to note that these people are already receiving Working for Families so currently get more than couples with no children who don't get anything from Working for Families. They continue to get more until the Working For Families is fully abated,” he said.
“One of the aims of the Family Incomes package is to focus Working for Families on lower income families and that middle income families are less dependent on Working for Families and keep more of what they earn through the tax system. This is an example of that occurring.”
Pretty desperate stuff from Labour but they do it because they don't get called out on it. They have claimed for years that health funding has been cut when in fact it has increased in nominal, real and real per capita terms.