CARMEL SEPULONI : IGNORING THE PLIGHT OF BENEFICIARIES

Even as the queues lengthen at the food banks, Social Development Minister Carmel Sepuloni thinks the recent minuscule $25 increase in core benefits has really 'made a difference'.

COMMUNITY GROUPS throughout the country have all been telling the Labour-led Government that the recent $25 increase in core welfare benefits has done next to nothing to alleviate the economic distress that most beneficiaries are enduring. They have pointed to the increasing demand on food banks as evidence of the growing deprivation in the community - a situation that is only going to get worse over the coming weeks and months as the recession begins to bite harder.

But Carmel Sepuloni, ever since she became Social Development Minister, has shown little regard for the plight of beneficiaries and, even in a time of crisis, her indifference remains the same.

Yesterday she argued that the $25 increase had, in fact, really 'made a difference'. She told TV3's The Hui:

'I think that the April 1 changes made a difference in terms of indexation coming in... but also the $25 increase that we introduced - and things like dropping the Section 192 sanction that penalised women who weren't able to name the other parent of the child. Those things made a difference.'

Sepuloni's comments contradict those of her own welfare working group. Last May it recommended that main benefits had to rise by as much as $70 a week in order to provide some lasting economic relief for beneficiaries and the poor. The Labour-led government rejected that recommendation.

But Carmel Sepuloni seems to have a certain idea about the kind of lives that beneficiaries should be allowed and expected to live. She also told The Hui that the recent panic buying at the supermarkets had made it difficult for beneficiaries to get the 'cheaper brands they rely on'. It's not so much 'let them eat cake' but 'let then eat two minute noodles and cheap loaves of white bread'.

Nearly 18,000 people became beneficiaries in the two weeks to April 10.