After promising $250 a fortnight to many families, the Government has been forced to admit just a couple hundred families are receiving it.

In a response to a written parliamentary question on their flagship FamilyBoost policy, the Revenue Minister has admitted that so far just “249 households have received the full $975 for both Q3 2024, Q4 2024, and Q1 2025.”

“This means only up to 249 families are receiving the full $250 tax cut that Christopher Luxon and Nicola Willis promised during the election campaign,” Labour finance and economy spokesperson Barbara Edmonds said.

“That tax cut was made up of income tax cuts, plus the FamilyBoost childcare rebate. While many people have found their tax cut was less than promised and is quickly being eaten up by rising costs, now we discover that people aren’t getting as much as promised in childcare either.

“Nicola Willis promised 100,000 families would get FamilyBoost, but barely half that are actually getting childcare support, and as at 9 April just 249 families have received the full amount over the three quarters since the policy was introduced.

“We’ve been asking the Government to make the policy easier for families to access, because it currently requires families to keep invoices and make claims retrospectively which can be a bureaucratic nightmare for busy parents. We’ve also been asking them to consider an end of year wash-up, so people get what they’re entitled to over the year rather than different amounts each quarter.

“But so far they’ve refused to budge. Costs are piling up on families under this Government and people are not getting what they were promised.

“Nicola Willis needs to stop blaming officials for her own failure to make good on her election campaign promises. People voted for her based on this, she should take responsibility for it,” Barbara Edmonds said.

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