Working mother-of-four gets help

Michelle O'Connell and her boys, from left, Te Aue, Hemi, Kowhai and Waimarama, will soon be $63 a week richer. Picture / Richard Robinson

Michelle O'Connell has rented a modest house in Swanson since her marriage broke up and she moved back to Auckland from Northland a few months ago.

In the house owned by her parents, Michelle's four children sleep on mattresses because there is no money yet for beds.

The 31-year-old is a model for Helen Clark's drive to get mothers back to work. Six weeks ago Michelle started nursing at Wai Health in Henderson for 33 hours a week, finishing when school finishes every day, except for one night a week, when her mother looks after the children.

On the other days, her father goes to the house after school while Michelle comes home by train. She has no car yet but plans to borrow from her sister to buy one soon so she can be home when her children arrive.

The budget is tight.

"This week I had to turn down sausages for a school sausage sizzle. It seems awful, but when you are times-ing it by three [children at the school] it's a biggie."

Michelle believes the children are not missing out on anything important, and she is coping.

"I'm finding it slightly exhausting. I'm finding it hard to give them all individual attention, especially the younger ones," she says. "I just have to delegate my time."

She is already taking advantage of the first part of the Working for Families package - higher subsidies for childcare, which took effect last October. The state now pays $75 of the $125 weekly fee for 4-year-old Waimarama.

From Friday, the family will be $70 a week better off with increased family support, although $7 of this will be clawed back by a smaller accommodation supplement - from $57 to $50 a week.

From April next year, with Michelle earning about $36,920 a year from Wai Health, she will get the full benefit of the increase, with an extra $24.73 in the hand each week.

Overall, by April 2007, she will be $140.77 a week better off than now. After adjusting for the number of mouths to feed, her income will have climbed to 90 per cent of the national average, up from 78 per cent.Simon Collins