The eligibility criteria for the Government's cost of living payment is too narrow, says the Green Party, which wants New Zealanders who receive a benefit or the pension to also get the $350 support.
Green MP Ricardo Menéndez March says the urgent need to provide lower-income Kiwis with more support is highlighted by figures released last week showing an increase in the number of New Zealanders receiving weekly payments from the Ministry of Development (MSD) to cover the costs of essential items.
"What it shows is that people are further behind in meeting those basic essentials and that they need additional top-ups just to be above the bread line," he says.
But extending the cost of living payment to those receiving a benefit is also just a "short-term intervention", the MP says, and more "permanent solutions" are needed.
The cost of living payment was first announced by the Government at the May Budget; $350 over three months to roughly 2.1 million New Zealanders who earn $70,000 or less and aren't entitled to the Winter Energy Payment. The first portion - about $116.67 - will start popping up in eligible New Zealanders' bank accounts from Monday.
However, the eligibility criteria means those receiving some benefits or Supernannuation are left out. The Government has touted the payment as being a "targeted" means of supporting New Zealanders who didn't benefit from increases to main benefits, the minimum wage, Superannuation rates and other supports in April.
But with inflation at a 32-year high of 7.3 percent and household spending up more than 30 percent over the past year, Menéndez March says the Government should extend its upcoming payment to Kiwis on a benefit or pension.
"It is not fair for the Government to be excluding people on the benefit from the cost of living payment under the premise that because they already get the Winter Energy Payment, therefore they don't face the additional cost of living pressures," he told Newshub.
He said other countries that had similar cost of living payment schemes, like the United Kingdom, had included people on a benefit among their eligible population.
"For those that are having to make the decision between choosing rent or paying their bills, every dollar makes a difference and every increase to the basic essentials can mean that it pushes people into debt and into a position where they can no longer meet these essentials."
Social Development Minister Carmel Sepuloni told Newshub the Government's cost of living payment is intended for those who fall into a "gap" of not currently receiving any support.
"Part of what we've heard as we've been talking to social services and others who have been working on the frontline with families affected by the pandemic has been that they have increasingly seen low-income working families coming in for support," she said.
"We recognise that there was a gap with regards to any financial support for that particular group of New Zealanders and the cost of living payment addresses that."
'Permanent solutions to address inequality'
Last week, MSD released the quarterly benefit figures, showing a decrease in the number of working-age people receiving a main benefit since the June quarter last year.
However, the number of people who received a Temporary Additional Support payment jumped from 82,905 in the last June quarter to 85,911 this year. That's a weekly payment to help people - whether they are on a main benefit or not - cover the cost of essential living needs that cannot be met from other income.
Also up is the amount being provided in Special Needs Grants - a one-off payment to help meet immediate needs - and in benefit advances.
"This just shows the extent to which people are facing cost of living pressures," said Menéndez March.
Newshub asked MSD why it believes more people are receiving the Temporary Additional Support as well as for a breakdown of how many people receiving it or the Special Needs Grant are also on the main benefit. However, MSD didn't have the information to hand and asked for the request to be filed under the Official Information Act.
Sepuloni said many families have been impacted by rising inflation.
"Right from the start, we were very clear with MSD that where whanau are entitled to support then MSD needs to make sure that they can access that," the minister said.
"We did lift the hardship threshold so that more whanau who perhaps aren't necessarily our benefit but are on the lowest of incomes, that they can access hardship support as well. I'm sure that that has had an impact."
Beyond extending the cost of living payment to those receiving a benefit, Menéndez March also wants to see more "permanent solutions to address inequality", including ending debt to MSD and increasing benefits rates further.
"Unless we increase benefits, those figures regarding the amount that people need for hardship grants and the debt that people are getting into won't be decreasing any time soon," the Green MP said.
He said it "makes no sense" for MSD to spend money and resources delivering temporary supports and hardship grants "when they could simply be increasing benefits to livable levels and not be pushing people constantly to their call centre just to get some extra top-ups just to make ends meet".
Menéndez March also took a critical view of the Government and Opposition focusing on the drop in people on a Jobseeker Support benefit last week rather than on what "these communities need to thrive" and the "support that these communities need to enter employment".
"Both National and Labour are using the Jobseeker figures as a political football to take cheap shots at each other at the expense of people on a benefit who need support," he said.
"What National and ACT often ignore is that a lot of the people who are represented in beneficiary figures have health conditions or are disabled people. The other thing that Labor needs to also recognise is that the way which MSD connects people to employment isn't fit for purpose."
He said there needs to be a framework to support those on a benefit into jobs that pay good wages, rather than placing "pressure" on them to take any job "no matter how unsuitable".
Menéndez March took issue with National and ACT's proposals to make adjustments to tax thresholds which would result in tax cuts.
"A tax cut will inevitably lead to our public services being even more chronically underfunded," he said.
"We believe that via interventions around increasing incomes, what we're also doing is providing enough support for people to also have access to adequate food and housing, which also ends up saving money in other areas, such as healthcare, because people won't be getting sick from preventable illnesses that come from poverty."
Both ACT and National have said their proposals are permanent supports for Kiwis, rather than a temporary solution like the cost of living payment.
