So today I was helping a friend of mine work out their entitlements though Winz and IRD, my friend is a Single Parent with a child under 5.

For them renting a 2 bedroom unit in South Auckland for $300 a week, and working 20 hours a week at min wage, their total take home weekly income will be $724 a week, including child support from the Non Custodial Parent who has care of the child 2 nights a week.

So after they have paid for their rent, that leaves them with $424 a week for all other expenses.

So now if you look at the non-custodial parent, they still require a place to live, a place large enough to ideally have a separate room for the child to stay in while in their care, bedroom furniture, clothing, toys, activities, food, etc Say that that non-custodial parent also only earns min wage for 40 hours a week and also has a 2 bedroom unit in south Auckland at $300 a week.

Once you take into account the Accommodation from WINZ, and Child Support Paid. The Non-custodial parent has a take home income of $489 a week. Leaving the Non-Custodial Parent with $189 a week for all other expenses after accommodation.

This works out to the non-custodial parent earning $235 less than the custodial parents income. While undertaking 20 hours more paid work.

So does it actually cost 65% more to have a child 5 nights vs 2 nights?

Rent per week is the same, power will be roughly the same, phone/internet bills wouldn’t be expected to be any different. Can probably expect to pay 50% more for a food bill, both parents still need to provide clothes, toys etc

Maybe the Government needs to look at these costs, and realize that it costs to have children in your care. and start working out their rates of Working for Families, and Accommodation on a nightly basis rather than having to meet a certain threshold….. It wouldn’t be overly hard to work out entitlements, the hardest part would be proving the actual time you have…

If you got assistance based on the days you have children, with the above situation, it would change from the non-custodial parent having a take home income of $489 to $548 a week. With the Custodial parent going from $724, down to $600….