What looks like thrift risks exacting great cost
This year's Budget was pitched as prudent and responsible, not a lolly scramble.
But from where we stand — alongside whānau struggling to stay housed, healthy and hopeful — what looks like prudence risks being profoundly costly in practice.
There are some welcome commitments: health infrastructure, early childhood subsidies and disability support. But they don't come close to the scale of need we see every day across Otago.
I think of a mum who came to us recently, a first-homeowner with a young baby, working hard to make ends meet. A change in circumstances and rising power prices left her unable to afford heating this winter.
We helped — but changes to the Best Start payment may now force her to give up work just to survive.
Our financial mentors no longer teach "budgeting". They're navigating low wages, food insecurity, mental distress and housing instability, all compounding each other.
Between January and April, we saw a 53% increase in people needing support. These aren't people living beyond their means — they are people whose means are no longer enough to live on.
This Budget reinstates prescription fees, narrows Best Start and halts 33 pay equity claims — decisions that hit women, children and low-income families the hardest.
That's not fairness. That's retreat.
Social service providers such as PSO are foundational infrastructure in our communities. But most agencies got no funding increase and the burden of doing more with less continues to grow.
We need a Budget that sees people not as cost centres, but as potential. That invests in food, housing, connection and care as fiercely as it does roads and rail.
Balance the books, yes, but not on the backs of the vulnerable. True stewardship means investing in dignity.
■ Robbie Moginie is chief executive of Presbyterian Support Otago.
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Otago Daily Times
14-06-2025
- Otago Daily Times
Octacan to boost stocks for winter
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08-06-2025
- Newsroom
NZ's means-testing creep
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Scoop
29-05-2025
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Govt's Budget Balanced On The Backs Of Low-Income Families
Press Release – Green Party Poverty is a political choice this coalition is repeatedly choosing. Once again, we see the wellbeing of thousands sacrificed in the name of superficial savings and cowardly games of political hot potato, says Ricardo Menndez March. The Government is quietly leaving some of our poorest families hundreds of dollars worse off, ignoring warnings that changes to the accommodation supplement and public housing subsidies will disproportionately target disabled, older, Māori, Pasifika, and young people. 'This is a stealth cut, pushed through with no acknowledgement of the harm it will cause,' says the Green Party's spokesperson for Housing, Ricardo Menéndez March. 'Housing is a human right. We can build an Aotearoa in which everyone has what they need, and nobody is left behind. 'Instead, the Government hoped we wouldn't notice that, hidden under headlines about KiwiSaver and Best Start changes, lies a major policy shift that will leave 13,200 families worse off by $100, even up to $200 per week*. 'Changes to how the Accommodation Supplement is calculated means that income from boarders–which previously were partially exempt because the Ministry of Social Development (MSD) understood these boarders were often family members–now fully counts against eligibility. 'MSD flagged early on that increased hardship was expected to be experienced by disabled people, young people, older New Zealanders and Māori and Pasifika peoples. 'People who receive the accommodation supplement, by definition, already have unaffordable rents. $100 or $200 a week may not feel much for a Prime Minister out of touch with reality, but for thousands of families it's a lifeline that allows them to keep a roof over their head, put food on the table and pay their bills. 'MSD also noted that any 'savings' were likely overstated**, as costs were simply going to be shifted to emergency housing and hardship grants. 'Poverty is a political choice this coalition is repeatedly choosing. Once again, we see the wellbeing of thousands sacrificed in the name of superficial savings and cowardly games of political hot potato,' says Ricardo Menéndez March. Notes: *An estimated 13,200 households will be affected (7,000 on accommodation supplement, 6,200 on public housing subsidies). On average, the 7,000 households with boarders receiving the Accommodation Supplement will be $100/week worse off, and people with 3 boarders would be $202/week worse off. Affected households receiving public housing subsidies would see an average increase of $132/week to the cost of their rent. (Page 21 of the report) **The Government is saving $150m over four years by stripping support (Accommodation Supplement + Income Related Rent Subsidy) from around 13,200 households who have boarders. MSD has told the Government that the savings are likely to be overestimated (page 7 and bottom of page 15 of the report). This is due to people needing hardship assistance, emergency housing, etc as a result of these changes creating costs for other parts of the system.
