Story: Family welfare

DPB cuts

DPB cuts

A Domestic Purposes Benefit Review Committee was set up by the government in 1976 to review the DPB. The committee suggested that 25% of women on the DPB in Auckland were abusing this benefit. Following this report, the government reduced the amount paid to unmarried mothers until maintenance from the father had been organised. They also paid separated women less in the first six months they were on the DPB to discourage them from taking up the benefit. This poster advertises a march and a public meeting in Wellington to protest these benefit cuts.

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Alexander Turnbull Library
Reference: Eph-A-WOMEN-1978-02-front

Permission of the Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand, Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa, must be obtained before any re-use of this image.

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How to cite this page:

Maureen Baker and Rosemary Du Plessis, 'Family welfare - Debating state responsibility, 1970s', Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, http://www.TeAra.govt.nz/en/ephemera/26090/dpb-cuts (accessed 29 March 2024)

Story by Maureen Baker and Rosemary Du Plessis, published 5 May 2011, reviewed & revised 29 Jun 2018