Stats NZ figures released on Thursday show food prices jumped by 8.3% in September compared to the year before, while fruit and vegetables increased by 16%.

The Government has substantially increased benefits, the largest increases since the 1940s, but households continue to face soaring prices for basic essentials - a phenomenon National says means people are getting "pummelled" and has the Greens calling for an immediate boost to benefits.

"Basic produce has soared in the last year; broccoli up 44%, cauliflower up 53%, kiwifruit up 42% [and] onions up 40%," National's finance spokesperson Nicola Willis said. Read more

Trade unions, charities and poverty action groups were among those asking the government to address mass unemployment and poverty.

Working through umbrella group ActionStation Aotearoa [New Zealand], the groups published an open letter, saying the situation was "urgent."

Families were being "pushed into poverty" by the loss of jobs under COVID-19, coupled with a long period of stagnant wages and high housing costs, they said.

Low welfare benefit rates mean that "right now, hundreds of thousands of children are constrained by poverty, despite parents' best efforts."

Many of those behind the letter are allies who campaigned and fund-raised for the government's re-election.

They pleaded with Ardern to introduce measures to make Aotearoa "the best place to be a child."

"This is not going to be an issue that gets resolved within one week or one month or indeed one term," Ardern responded.

In 2017 she vowed to eliminate child poverty and the housing affordability crisis.

During her first term, a government Welfare Advisory Group worked on a raft of changes to reduce poverty.

Last year they recommended allocating an extra $5.2 billion a year for social welfare, immediately raising benefit rates for main benefits ranging from 17 to 47 percent. Indexing benefits to average wages was also suggested.

The government supported the indexation recommendation, but only increased benefit rates by $25 a week,. Further increases were "not fiscally sustainable," it said.

At grass-roots level, health professionals are seeing the human side of poverty.

An Auckland school nurse says kids are coming to school with ill-fitting shoes falling off their feet or held together with tape.

Even before COVID, many were coming to her with headaches from dehydration, stomach cramps, lethargy.

They weren't ill, she says: "I was finding they were just hungry kids." She now spends $80 a week of her own money on feeding them.

KidsCan, which provides food, shoes and raincoats to schools, has now stepped in to help. The change in the students was "just remarkable ...because now they're not hungry anymore," the school nurse says.

A Whangarei school principal says people don't understand what children's lives can look like when a family of six has $300 to cover rent, power and food.

Anxiety and stress have skyrocketed in the children at her school since the pandemic. Many families have been disturbed by job losses and housing changes.

Last week around 23,000 people at the end of the COVID-19 income relief payment were still unemployed.

Ministry of Social Development (MSD) figures to the end of October show only 5,000 had transferred onto the jobseeker benefit. Thousands of jobseekers don't qualify for the benefit.

The official unemployment rate is expected to worsen. Food bank demand has tripled since last year.

A new report says nearly 40 percent of eight-year old children's homes are cold, mouldy and damp.

It also reports that many families can't afford to eat properly.

Source

• Scoop
• Stuff
• Image: The Daily Blog

"During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, you acted quickly to set up the COVID income relief payment, which is nearly twice the amount of the usual jobseeker benefit.

"You showed us that you understand that current benefit levels are insufficient and lock families and children into poverty — an issue that affects all of us.

"Now, we are asking you to apply the same common sense approach to all income support", the groups wrote in and open letter.

The religious and community groups are urging Ardern to lift inadequate welfare payments by Christmas.

"No matter who we are or where we live, we know that our wellbeing is interconnected with those around us. When everyone has what they need to look after themselves and fully participate in their communities, we all flourish, the groups say.

Right now, hundreds of thousands of children are constrained by poverty, despite parents' best efforts and we all want every child in Aotearoa to experience a thriving and happy childhood, they say.

"This is a critical time in our history and we are concerned even more people will slip into entrenched poverty," says the Salvation Army policy director, Ian Hutson.

Hutson says when people have to battle day-to-day to put food on the table and find the rent, the emotional initiative that is sucked up by the struggle to survive leaves people without the energy or hope to find work.

"People need enough income to stand up on so they can move on."

Another signatory to the open letter is Mental Health Foundation's chief executive Shaun Robinson. A living wage is critical to good mental health, he says.

"There is ample evidence that poverty, particularly as it impacts on children, has significant impacts on poor mental health."

Many of Jacinda's child poverty and children's mental health goals could be met simply by raising benefits, he says.

"This is a very quick fix: put the money into making benefits liveable, especially for households with children and you will achieve many of your policy outcomes within months."

The National Council of Women New Zealand's president, Lisa Lawrence, says those on welfare are increasingly worse off.

"We would implore that the rates of benefits across the country are re-examined so that no child is left in material poverty," she says.

Community volunteer and disability benefit recipient Stacey Ryan says this year's $25 a week benefit boost isn't enough.

"Because of my illnesses and disabilities I can't work anymore and an extra 25 dollars a week does not help me afford the medicines I need, let alone help me pay my rent, pay my bills and have my phone going.

"For the majority of people they need an extra 100 to 150 dollars a week - and that's for a solo person," she says.

Government Minister Nanaia Mahuta has declined to comment on benefit adequacy.

Source

• Scoop
• Action Station
• TVNZ
• Image: Stuff