Calls in NZ for higher welfare benefits
Updated
In New Zealand, child poverty lobbyists are calling for higher welfare benefits and tax cuts for low income earners in next month's budget.
The Child Poverty Action Group wants to see the the bottom tax rate cut to 10 per cent from 15 per cent on incomes of up to $NZ20,000 ($US15,000) a year.
New Zealand came third-worst in the developed world in a UNICEF survey of child poverty in 2000, with a quarter of all children then living in families earning less than 60 per cent of the median income.
The government announced a goal in 2002 to eliminate child poverty but unlike Britain, which has vowed to end it by 2020, no target date has been set in New Zealand.
The action group says the current tax bracket for the lowest paid workers hasn't been reviewed for 30 years.
