State financial support for families expanded during the 20th century, particularly in the period after the Second World War. Social-security beneficiaries were often seen as taking advantage of state benefits. Keith Waite’s 1950s cartoon ‘Social insecurity’ was prompted by an announcement that annual social-security costs exceeded £45 million. The metaphor for the welfare system is a shoddily constructed and constantly extended house inhabited by men who sleep, lie around, smoke cigarettes and read books. While women and children were also beneficiaries of social security, they are invisible. The cartoon highlights an ongoing concern in New Zealand about the risks of state financial support for families, especially the potential disincentive for men to undertake paid work.