March 15, 2023
Cost of living benefit rise illusion
Green Party consumer affairs spokesman Ricardo Menendez-March says the Government’s increase in benefits from the first of April will be welcomed by beneficiaries – until they realise it won’t cover rising costs. – and most will effectively remain below the poverty line.
About 1.4 million New Zealanders will receive from $20 to $50 more per week in what Prime Minster Chris Hipkins calls the bread and butter cost of living support package.
Mr Menendez-March says it sounds good to people wanting to afford a few more groceries and helopiwth their power costs, but it doesn’t address underlying poverty levels.
“When we’ve got supermarkets, and other companies, putting their prices up at the same time, it shows we can’t rely on those changes alone. It would be dishonest of this government to pretend that these changes will make a substantive difference for people – when we’ve chosen to still keep those incomes below the poverty line for so many,” he says.
Mr Menendez-March says while in the case of supermarkets and oil companies there seems to be evidence of profiteering, many genuinely struggling businesses will also want to pass on rising costs to consumers – which will quickly whittle away any gains from the April increases.