June 08, 2021
Under-employment hitting whanau income
Whānau ora commissioning agency Te Pūtahitanga is noting growing under-employment is affecting the ability of whānau to recover from the Covid shock.
Chief executive Helen Leahy says the trend can be seen in the 27,000 applications in the past three months to its Puna relief fund, with most being for help with food, power and firewood.
It’s clear many whānau just can’t make ends meet.
Many of our whānau may have returned to work post-Covid but they have less hours or reduced income because they've had to change their occupations, they may have lost jobs in hospitality or tourism and taken up jobs which have less income coming into the household," Ms Leahy says.
Many of the families seen by the Puna Fund aren’t being picked up by the welfare system because they are the working poor.
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