Grandparents raising grandchildren in New Zealand are entitled to
the unsupported child benefit (UCB) if they meet the conditions
for eligibility. To access the support, they are required to attend
the offices of Work and Income. In a large survey of such
grandparents undertaken in 2016 (funded by a Lotteries Community Sector Research Fund grant) participants articulated a wide
range of qualitative comments around their experiences in
accessing this important form of income support. While a
proportion had positive experiences, most were critical of the
operation of the offices. Between the policy of providing financial
support for children unable to live with their own parents, and the
practice of being a grandparent looking after such children, lies a
complex set of systems of which grandparents were often
extremely critical, for a range of reasons which are explored in
this paper.
- Citation: Liz Gordon (2017) Experiences of grandparents raising grandchildren in getting income support from work and income offices in New Zealand, Kōtuitui: New Zealand Journal of Social Sciences Online, 12:2, 134-145, DOI: 10.1080/1177083X.2017.1343194
- Creative Commons: Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike CC BY-NC-SA
- Creator: Dr Liz Gordon, Pukeko Research Ltd
- Language: English
- Publisher: KŌTUITUI: NEW ZEALAND JOURNAL OF SOCIAL SCIENCES ONLINE
- Year: 2017-04-08
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