FOR MEDIA 13 NOVEMBER 1987
JOINT STATEMENT BY THE PRIME MINISTER AND THE MINISTER FOR
SOCIAL SECURITY, MR BRIAN HOWE
Eligible families can now apply for the Government's new
family benefit.
The benefit fulfils a promise made by the Government during
the election campaign.
In the last Federal Budget, the Government committed itself
to a $ 500 million family package to help out parents who are
working to make ends meet.
In framing our last Budget the Government decided to give
something back to low income families. The recognition by
Australian workers of the need for restraint over the last
few years has helped support the reconstruction of the
Australian economy.
We decided to give a helping hand to the families with
children.
The major payment in the family package is called the Family
Allowance Supplement.
It is tax free, and it will be paid on top of the family
allowance. Because it is tax free the Family Allowance Supplement is
better than a pay rise eligible families will get to keep
all of it.
A family on $ 400 a week with two teenagers and paying rent
will get $ 27 a week.
Because it is tax free the Family Allowance Supplementc they
get is equivalent to a pay rise for that family of $ 45 a
week or 11.25 per cent.
The same family on $ 350 a week will get an extra $ 52 to add
on to their wage. That is equivalent to a pay rise of $ 86 a
week or almost 25 per cent.
Families with two young children are eligible for some
payment up to an income of $ 400 a week. The more children
families have, the more money they can earn and still get
the Family Allowance Supplement.
2.
Because of Labor, Australia's tax system is fairer because
of the family package, Australia's wages system is fairer.
The family package offers rent assistance to working
families for the first time.
And for the first time in our history it offers working
families a child payment which is indexed to pension rate
increases.
This package takes the first step towards constructing a new
system of public support for children targeted to those
families who need it most.
Labor has not forgotten its traditional commitment more
than a million children will benefit from the family package
in this financial year.
Child payments for parents in the social security system
will be increased automatically to the family package
levels. This is the start of a three year program to build a new
system of child support for Australian families. By that
time there will be a single system of payments covering both
eligible working families and families in the social
security system.
All Australian children have the right to a decent standard
of living all our policies are directed to making that
principle a firm reality for every family.
Our goal is that no child need live in poverty by 1990.
The family package is the first step towards
goal. ( The Prime minister accepts the first formal
the new benefit at Mt Druitt shopping centre
today.) reaching that
aplications for
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