{"id":34472,"date":"2021-07-28T05:00:42","date_gmt":"2021-07-27T20:00:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2021\/jul\/28\/can-we-opt-out-new-zealand-benefit-increases-leave-some-worse-off"},"modified":"2021-07-28T05:00:42","modified_gmt":"2021-07-27T20:00:42","slug":"can-we-opt-out-new-zealand-benefit-increases-leave-some-worse-off","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/?p=34472","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Can we opt out?\u2019: New Zealand benefit increases leave some worse off"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Experts say failures of latest benefit changes show need for major reforms to labyrinthine welfare system<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt feels like a broken promise,\u201d says Bella*, a thirtysomething Auckland mother of one for whom this month\u2019s ostensible benefit increases have turned into something quite different \u2013 a $75 a week loss of income.<\/p>\n<p>On 1 July, New Zealand\u2019s Labour government lifted weekly benefits by $20 per adult, the first instalment in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2021\/may\/20\/new-zealand-budget-2021-ardern-welfare-covid-19-child-pvoerty-housing\">a $32-55 increase in May\u2019s budget<\/a> that was the largest since the foundation of the modern welfare state in the 1930s.<\/p>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2021\/jul\/28\/can-we-opt-out-new-zealand-benefit-increases-leave-some-worse-off\">Continue reading&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Experts say failures of latest benefit changes show need for major reforms to labyrinthine welfare system\u201cIt feels like a broken promise,\u201d says Bella*, a thirtysomething Auckland mother of one for whom this month\u2019s ostensible benefit increases have tur&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2338,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sns_share_botton_hide":"","vkExUnit_sns_title":"","_vk_print_noindex":"","sitemap_hide":"","_veu_custom_css":"","veu_display_promotion_alert":"","vkexunit_cta_each_option":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[41,56,42],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-34472","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-asia-pacific","category-new-zealand","category-world-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"veu_head_title_object":{"title":"","add_site_title":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34472","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2338"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=34472"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34472\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34473,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34472\/revisions\/34473"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=34472"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=34472"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=34472"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}