The government said they would tackle the cost of living. We challenged them at the time regarding their flawed logic and shonky maths yet they insisted their policies would work.
After promising $250 a fortnight to many families, the government has now been forced to admit just a couple of hundred families are receiving it.
Based on the conversations I have had across the Taieri electorate and the socio-economic data, I know many families with children — particularly in South Dunedin and Mosgiel — would be eligible for the subsidy. But have they accessed it?
In a response to a written parliamentary question on their flagship FamilyBoost policy, Revenue Minister Simon Watts has admitted so far just "249 households have received the full $975 for both Q3 2024, Q4 2024, and Q1 2025".
This means only up to 249 families are receiving the full $250 tax cut that Christopher Luxon and Nicola Willis promised during the election campaign.
That tax cut was made up of income tax cuts, plus the FamilyBoost childcare rebate.
While many people have found their tax cut was less than promised and is quickly being eaten up by rising costs, we now discover people aren’t getting as much as promised in childcare, either.
Ms Willis promised 100,000 families would get FamilyBoost, but barely half that number are actually getting childcare support, and as at April 9, just 249 families have received the full amount over the three quarters since the policy was introduced.
We’ve been asking the government to make the policy easier for families to access, because it requires families to keep invoices and make claims retrospectively, which can be a bureaucratic nightmare for busy parents. I’ve been told this by many parents around the electorate.
Others have said they have no idea whether they are eligible for the rebate and don’t know how to go about accessing it. And some don’t even know the rebate is available, even though it’s highly likely they qualify for it.
We’ve also been asking the government to consider an end-of-year wash-up, so people get what they’re entitled to over the year rather than different amounts each quarter.
But so far they’ve refused to budge. Costs are piling up on families under this government and people are not getting what they were promised.
Ms Willis needs to stop blaming officials for her own failure to make good on her election campaign promises. People voted for her based on this, and she should take responsibility for it.
