Government insists 'naturally disappointing' Treasury botch up won't impact child poverty plans

A review is underway and Treasury is promising the mistake is a one-off.

The Government insists plans to introduce targets and measures to lift children out of poverty are unaffected by a massive botch up by its own number crunchers.

Treasury last night admitted a coding error has led to an "overstatement" of the projected impact of the Government’s Families Package on reducing child poverty.

It also affects National's projections for its own policies.

Labour had been told its package would lift 88,000 kids out of poverty. National’s estimates were 49,000 in its first year.

The Government is expected to introduce legislation in the first sitting week of the year – in early February – that would force Governments to set child poverty reduction targets.

That's part of Labour's 100 day plan.

The Prime Minister is also expected to make a major speech focussing on child poverty measures and targets around that time.

A spokeswoman has confirmed those plans are not affected by Treasury's blunder. 

The legislation will still be introduced and targets will be released around the same time.

Finance Minister Grant Robertson says it's "naturally disappointing" that Treasury has found this error in their model.

"I have directed them to carry out the work required to remodel the projections as fast as possible," Mr Robertson said in a statement.

"We must remember though, that this does not affect the 384,000 families that will benefit from this Government's Families Package, nor does it affect the amount they will receive or the overall cost of the package."

Treasury is now correcting the model and is hoping to give the Government updated figures in mid-February.

Treasury Secretary Gabriel Makhlouf has also ordered an independent review of the error. The review will also look at possible improvements to Treasury’s modelling framework and processes.

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