Social Justice, Social Policy and Social Problems

This report explores the relationship between private troubles and social policy, the development of social policy, and the evaluation of human rights and indigenous rights in New Zealand. It focuses on the income support policy as a social policy issue to overcome the private trouble of poverty. The report also analyses the capability of prevailing processes and structures of the government for giving consequence to human rights and making suggestions to modify the issues.

RUNNING HEAD: Social justice, social policy and social problems
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Social justice, social policy and social problems

Social justice, social policy and social problems
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Introduction
The social justice is a perception of fair relationship between an individual and society. It
stresses on people to receive benefits and burden of cooperation. The social policy is referred
to the policies which are used by the government for the welfare and social defence. The
social problems affect and damages society, so the social policies are recommended to
overcome the issues. In this report, the relationship between private troubles and social policy
has been defined. The income support policy has been selected to alleviate poverty in New
Zealand. The development of social policy has been analysed. Finally, the human rights and
indigenous rights have been critically evaluated.
The link between private troubles and social policy
The private troubles have become public issues as it affects a group of people. The troubles
are more private and relatable to the individuals. For instance, the unemployment is an
individual problem due to lack of skills. It is a personal problem if one person is being
unemployed but becomes a national issue if the 25% population of the nation is being
unemployed. The social policy undertakes the human needs or the issues related to the
humans. The social policies are created to overcome the private troubles on the national level.
The income support policy is taken as a social policy issue to overcome the private trouble
which is poverty (Cancian & Haskins, 2014). Many people in New Zealand are unable to
earn sufficient income in order to meet basic expenses due to age, impairment,
unemployment, underemployment and low wages. The income support policy is all about
ensuring the basic needs of the citizens of New Zealand so that they can live a dignified life.
It empowers people who are not able to change their situations to take greater accountability
for their live phases. The green party’s income support policy endorses restructurings to the
income support systems planned to eradicate poverty in New Zealand. It encourages citizens
to contribute in a free and fair society to their maximum capability. The policy is also part of
the complete green vision for the social and economic impartiality and reads on the aspects
like children , work, and employment, housing, education, health and more (Chow, et. al.
2017). The income support policy supports to people by contributing to society through the
programmes like employment. It puts greater emphasis on the sufficiency, simplicity, and
universality. The income support policy focuses on the social justice, equitable compensation
and meeting needs of people.

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The income support policy focuses on the standard of the living of people and empowers
them to participate in the community. The policy is geared towards achieving poverty relief.
The family package bill is designed by the government to provide social assistance for the
improvement of low and middle-income families and reduction of child poverty (Bradford,
Hawkins & Acker, 2015). The government focuses on the children in order to ensure that
they get the best in life. This package also provides income support for the families without
children. The government also provides advice to the people in order to access the housing
services needed by them. It also helps to reshape the housing system in NZ and provides
better service to the people who are homeless and living insecure. The government works
with the agencies such as treasury, ministry of business, housing New Zealand Corporation
and more (Weltin, et. al. 2017).
Development of a social policy
The social policy is an introduction of social amenities and the welfare state. The
administrative social amenities comprise plans for health, housing, income maintenance,
education and social work. The social policy affects the service users including poverty,
disability, family policy and more. The social policies state to the policies which are used by
the government for the welfare and social protection so that welfare can be established in the
society. These are developed to meet the needs of people (De Wispelaere, 2016).
The income support policy is focussed on the alleviation of poverty and it’s impacts. There
are 3 alternative causes of poverty. As per one view, poverty is due to lack of motivation. It is
society’s barrier to opportunity. The poor people are trapped in poverty due to inadequate
education and services. According to the third view, the disincentive effect of the government
policy is behind the income and employment problem of the poor (Verbruggen, Apel, Van
Der Geest & Blokland, 2015). The poverty is lack of food, water and shelter. It also means
not having accessibility to the basic services such as not having a job, not being able to see a
doctor and more. There are two measures of the extreme poverty such as households such as
incomes below half of the official poverty line and the poverty gap. The poverty rate of U.S
rose from 11.3% in 2000 to 15% in 2011. At the same time, the percentage of persons with
incomes below half of the poverty line rose from 4.5% to 6.6%. The poverty gap is the
difference between the poverty line and income of a person. According to a report, in 2012,
the poverty gap per person in poor families was $2806. The inequality is an important ethical
issue. The economic mobility is affected by the inequality (Fazel, Geddes, & Kushel, 2014).

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The income support policy includes paid work, unpaid work of caring for children and family
members and the volunteers. As per this policy, every person should manage sufficient
income to contribute in the community in order to live safe and healthy. The policy is
committed to providing full employment. It ensures that there is enough work for everyone
who needs it. The review of income and support policy reflects that the state played an active
role in providing for the welfare of the people of New Zealand (Tikly, 2016). The child
poverty states the percentage of children living in families with the income less than fifty
percentage of the national median. According to UNICEF, the child poverty rate in New
Zealand is less than in the U.S. the consequences for the children of poverty have been
highlighted. The children from low-income families have more than double the prevalence of
lasting illness and disabilities compared to the children living in families with higher income.
The development of social policies addresses child poverty by addressing child poverty by
increasing sustenance for parents through family tax credits and accommodation supplement
payments (Gilbert, 2017). The income support policy focuses on everyone to have standard
living which enables them to participate in the community. The policy ensures that people
have sufficient income for their wellbeing. The emphasis is given on the sufficiency,
simplicity, and universality and people are in meeting their potential and generating a
fulfilling life. The policy protects all the benefits by associating rates to a fixed percentage of
average wages. The income support policy has replaced social security act 1964 by a modest
two-tier benefit system comprising of collective base rate. The child benefit is promoted by
capitalizing towards a home deposit. It supports the action of the government to address the
problem of benefit diminution for the persons stirring into employment and the elimination of
the poverty trap. The policy removes discrimination from the tax credit regimes and supports
to carry out a minimum of hours of voluntary work per week (Overland, Grasdal & Reme,
2018). It also focuses on improving the work culture and income so that individuals are
behaved with pride and esteem and enable to access full privileges on time.
The treaty of Waitangi is representatives of the British crown and Maori chiefs. The green
policy enables to work with hapu and iwi to review income support policy and execution to
make sure promises are met (Wilson, 2017). The income and support policy has removed the
limited employment location policy and works with hapu and iwi to contemplate alternate
mechanism for the income support. This policy ensures that staff have te tirti education and
can articulate Te Reo names and are conscious of the area where they work. It also

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undermines the economic opportunity and works with them in order to access all entitlement
as well as work opportunities (Belmessous, 2018).
The income support policy responds through various systems like the Universal Basic Income
(UBI) system, in this system government funds for the complete readings on the influences of
UBI. The green party inspects the execution of a universal basic income for every citizen of
New Zealand. The income support policy reforms the existing income support policy by
implementing the principles of sufficiency, simplicity, and universality of the income support
system (Schoen, Buttorff, Andersen, Davis, 2015). The green party sets benefits amount at
every level in such a way that the income of beneficiary is sufficient for all the basic needs.
The policy focuses on protecting welfare benefit levels by indexing rates and ensuring that
benefits do not fall less than a certain percentage of the average wage. The reforms certify
that supplementary support payments keep step with the cost of living (Berger, Font, Slack &
Waldfogel, 2017). This policy introduced consumer price index-adjusted universal child
benefit. It is similar to the family benefit that was eradicated in1991. It capitalizes towards
the procurement of a first home by the family of the child. The policy reintroduced assistance
for the unsupported idle individuals or sick young people aged 16-17 without necessitating
them to form family collapse. It considers people aged eighteen and over as adults for the
income support purposes. The policy is stressing on treating all the adults as the potential
individuals for the relevant benefit over the holiday. It addresses the problem of benefit
abatement and the poverty reduction caused due to the marginal tax rates which exist for the
people on low incomes (Hardy, Smeeding & Ziliak, 2018). The green party supports parents
and children and encourages engaging in the employment and opposing discriminatory. It
supports the eradication of discriminatory tax credit regimes. It is beneficial to single parents
and the partners who are responsible for caring dependants.
The strength of income and support policy can be evaluated from the wellbeing of children
and the emphasis on the adult employment. It also contributed to the parental self-sufficiency.
It supports the people of the low-income group. It provides benefits such as housing, council
tax reduction, child benefit, child tax credit along with the health costs. The individuals
seeking for the claim should be between 16 and pension credit age. The policy introduced a
tax-free zone as a portion of ecological tax reforms (Bertone & Witter, 2015).
The measurement such as income support policy has been taken to alleviate the poverty
comprising child benefits. But these solutions have not been truly operative. The income

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support payment for families with dependent children replaced various benefits and tax
credits along with the housing for poor families (Huang, et. al. 2015). Even after the
implementation of such policy, the child poverty rate is relatively high. According to
UNICEF, the child poverty must also comprise worldwide child programmes and decline in
poverty. The children of low-income families have twofold the prevalence of chronic illness
and diabetes than living in the families on higher incomes (Bloom, & Phillips, 2017). There is
a lack of units to be directed for reducing child poverty.
Evaluation of human rights and indigenous rights
New Zealand has made various international obligations with respect to the protection and
advancement of human rights. Over the last few years, the interest of the government has
been increased on the policy-making process. However, there is improbability about the
requirement of appropriate rights-based approach to the social policy. In 2003, the human
rights commission produced an issues paper on the insinuations of applying a right based
investigation for the development of social policy in the country. It aims to facilitate
implications of the social policy for taking a rights-based approach. The policy stresses on the
human rights and how rights-based focus can help to human needs. The report also focuses
on the international human rights commitments as they are particularly linked to the social
policy. It also focuses on the economic, social and cultural rights along with the objectives of
the state (Karney, Bradbury & Lavner, 2018). Finally, the article also analyses the capability
of prevailing processes and structures of the government for giving consequence to human
rights and making suggestions to modify the issues. The legality of using rights-based
framework conceptualize the responsibilities of the state.
The treaty of Waitangi is the formation deed of New Zealand. The agreement was retained
between the representative of the British crown and Maori chiefs in 1840 which permitted
consequent relocation to New Zealand. The preamble set the purpose of the agreement in
order to protect the rights and property of Maori and the government. The treaty of Waitangi
is New Zealand’s exceptional statement of human rights. It comprises both universal human
rights and indigenous rights. The human rights built a better understanding of interrelations
between individual and communal rights. The treaty and universal announcement of human
rights manage the relationship between the people in New Zealand and between the people of
the crown. They set out a foundation which respects the human rights of all the New
Zealanders (Came, Cornes & McCreanor, 2018). The treaty protects and preserves the land,

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forest and other treasures for the upcoming generations. The treaty of Waitangi includes the
right to impartiality, equivalence, and freedom from the discrimination. The Waitangi look
for the recommendations for compensation by the crown for past violations comprising
colonial wars, repossession and large-scale land loss linked to the gaps of the Treaty of
Waitangi. The crown apologizes for performing unconsciously and in constant breach of the
moralities of the Treaty of Waitangi in dealing with Ngai Tahu in the acquisition of Ngai
Tahu land. The board has come up with the criticism from the senior international human
rights officials in the case of human rights and essential freedoms of the aboriginal people.
The provisions of the Waitangi treaty requirements are not openly enforceable under the laws
of New Zealand. The entrenchment of the treaty of Waitangi in the statutory law is unsettled
from long. The committee should be prudently acknowledged and became obligatory on the
crown. The assessing of the claims of Waitangi represents only one of the two treaty parties.
In 2006, 1315 claims were registered with the Waitangi Tribunal. There had been eighteen
settlements of historical treaty claims between 1992 to 2005 with a total value of $718
million. The treaty settlements have been negotiated so far for involving quantities of
reparation that represents a fraction of the value of land and resources lost during the colonial
period (Pecora, et. al. 2017). The vision of Waitangi committee is to create a future of two
peoples as one nation. The lack of legal teeth denotes that the committee is not able to
address human rights violations in an enforceable way (Norris, 2016).
The number of individuals moving across international borders is predictable to increase in
the future. The individuals have the right to leave a country but there is no right to enter or
live in another country. The government exercises authority to resolve who to admit into their
region. The national government is responsible for protecting the individuals and their rights
who enter in the country. All the individuals are eligible for the fundamental rights and labor
protections in New Zealand (Schluter, et. al. 2017). The new immigration legislation has been
ordained in the review of the human rights in 2004. The immigration act 2009, governs the
migration in New Zealand whereas the migration advisers certifying act regulates the person
who seeks migration advice. The recognized seasonal employer's scheme (RSE) 2007 and the
introduction of Supplementary Seasonal Employment (SSE) 2009 delivers workforces from
the Pacific with entrance to the New Zealand labor market. It aims to safeguard the privileges
of the workers. There has been an improved prominence on the settlement and providing
support to the immigrants through central, local government and the voluntary sector. It also
includes the establishment of migrant resource centers and the introduction of local

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newcomers’ networks. There are global laws for the migrants and their families in order to
protect them. These laws are for the equal treatment of immigrants and inhabitants, the
general rights apply to all the immigrants irrespective of status and universal standards for the
security and circumstances at work. The rights of the migrants are set in the international
instruments (Marchal, Marx & Verbist, 2018). The provision for the core human rights is
applicable universally and therefore protects migrants. The international contract on
protecting human rights of the migrant workers and their families and the International
Labour Organisation (ILO) applies to the migrant workers. The ILO implements the rights of
workers by various conventions and recommendations. The ILO convention offers the
foundation for equivalence and treatment of residents and migrants in the field of recruitment,
living and working conditions, accessibility to justice and social security regulations. It also
sets out the conditions for the contribution of workers in job training, promotion, termination
of employment and regulation of entire migration process (McAllister, 2018). The ILO was
approved to reduce the irregular migration. It defines the requirements in order to respect the
rights of migrants with an irregular status. It also provides measurement to end concealed
trafficking and penalizing employers of irregular migrants. The convention adopted by the
U.S. government which brings the rights that protect the migrants. The immigration act of
2009 oversees immigration in New Zealand. The citizens of New Zealand should hold a visa
to travel to or be in New Zealand. There is a number of the categories of visa such as
permanent resident, resident, temporary, limited, interim and transit. The migration
consultants licensing act 2007 purposes to endorse and protect the interest of individuals
receiving immigration advice. The act also enhances the reputation of the citizens of the
country as immigration destination by offering advice for the persons who need migration
advice (Saunders, 2017).
Conclusion
The income support policy has been selected to alleviate poverty. The income support policy
has focused on the standard of the living of people and empowered them to participate in the
community. The policy is geared towards achieving poverty relief. The family package bill is
designed by the government to provide social assistance for the improvement of low and
middle-income families and reduction of child poverty. The development of income support
policy have been analysed along with the response of Treaty of Waitangi. At last the human

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rights and the indigenous rights are evaluated by focusing on the NZ’s progress on the social
justice.

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