Budget 2015: 10 things you need to know

Name: Budget 2015: Bill English: 'helping parents into work'
Uploaded: 2015-05-21T13:59:10+12:00
Duration: 238 s
Description: Beneficiary families and low-income working families will get a boost of up to $25 a week as part of a child hardship package which is the centre-piece of Bill English's seventh Budget. It is the first increase in core benefits, apart from inflations adjustments, since 1972 and will affect 110,000 families.

NZ Herald

21 May, 2015 06:34 PMQuick Read

Beneficiary families and low-income working families will get a boost of up to $25 a week as part of a child hardship package which is the centre-piece of Bill English's seventh Budget. It is the first increase in core benefits, apart from inflations adjustments, since 1972 and will affect 110,000 families.

The 10 key things you need to know out of the Budget announcement.

• A $790 million child hardship package which includes a $25 increase in core benefits for beneficiaries with children; minor adjustments up and down in Working for Families payments depending on income.

• Increased obligations on beneficiaries regarding finding part-time work.

• Budget deficit of $684 million this financial year, turning into a $176 million surplus in 2015/16.

• Economic growth to average nearly 3 per cent over the next four years.

• Unemployment expected to fall below 5 per cent next year.

• The prospect of "modest" tax cuts in 2017 - election year.

• A $52 million "contingency fund" to speed the building of houses on crown-owned land in Auckland.

• The wiping of the $1,000 kick-start contribution on signing up to Kiwisaver.

• A new "border clearance levy" for arriving and departing passengers of $16 and $6 respectively.

• A $20 million increase in the budgets of both the Security Intelligence Service and the Government Communications Security Bureau.

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