Finance Minister Bill English has asked banks and the Inland Revenue Department to be flexible with Christchurch earthquake victims.

Peter Dunne's bill is unfair, unaffordable and unlikely to happen, writes Brian Fallow.

John Armstrong writes that the working group's prescription for change may be blinkered by ideology such as time limits.

Controversial new data suggests that more than half of all sole parents on the domestic purposes benefit first became beneficiaries as teens.

A growing number of unemployed couples are living apart so one can claim the domestic purposes benefit to get more money, say beneficiary advocates.

A former children's home supervisor convicted of sexually abusing a young girl in his care has escaped a jail sentence by fleeing to England.