Single parent today is up to $160 better off than in 1993

A solo mother claiming maximum possible benefits today would get about $160 more a week in real terms than a single mother in Social Development Minister Paula Bennett's time as a DPB mum in the 1990s.

A comparison of the maximum entitlements available in social welfare for solo mothers in 2009 compared with 1993 shows today's mother would get $700.49 a week - compared to $537 in 1993, after being adjusted for inflation.

In May, Ms Bennett changed the criteria for the Training Incentive Allowance so solo parents in tertiary education no longer qualified.

One of her defences against claims she was denying them an allowance she herself had claimed for university in the 1990s, was that there was now more support for solo parents - especially in childcare.

Ms Bennett was a single mother with one daughter who went on and off the DPB from the late 1980s through to 1997 after she graduated. She has refused to release her own income details from that time.

The Herald sourced information on the entitlements of single mothers from University of Auckland economics lecturer Susan St John, whose thesis used benefit levels from 1993.

At left is the comparison of the maximum entitlements for a solo parent with one child living in Auckland.

THE COMPARISON

Maximum weekly entitlements in 1993:
* Domestic Purposes Benefit: $190.27 net
* Family Support: $42
* Childcare subsidy for under-5s only: $65
* Accommodation supplement: $75
* TOTAL: $372.27.
* Real value in 2009: $537.

Maximum weekly entitlements in 2009:
* DPB: $272.70 net
* Childcare subsidies: $181.50 (straight to childcare/after-school centre)
* Family tax credit: $86.29
* Accommodation supplement: max $160
* TOTAL: $700.49