Winter energy payments ending: 'I don't know what I am going to do'

Tuesday, 8 September 2020

Kathleen Chase is a pensioner who receives the winter energy payment. She has underlying health conditions and is worried about what will happen when the payment finishes on October 1.

Widowed pensioner Kathleen Chase has a serious heart condition and says the end of the winter energy payment on October 1 means she will struggle to keep her Housing New Zealand flat warm.

During winter, she has relied on the weekly winter energy payment to cover most of her power bill for her small Christchurch flat.

Chase said she worried about what the end of the $40 a week payment would mean as she battled on her single pension to make ends meet.

“I really struggle with power costs during the winter, even with the winter energy payment,” she said.

* Homeless pensioner went public, six hours later she had a home

* 73-year-old faces long wait for social housing in Christchurch

Kathleen Chase, a pensioner who receives the winter energy payment, has underlying health conditions and she is worried about what will happen when the payment finishes on October 1.

* Earlier Winter Energy Payment a modest positive for Southland pensioners

“My cardiologist said, for health for my heart, I have to have the house at 20 degrees and it is hard to keep my house at that temperature.”

Even during the summer, the power bills could be high, she said.

“When this ends, I just don’t know what I am going to do.”

The winter energy payment is automatically paid to all people receiving a main benefit, including NZ Superannuation and the veterans pension.

As of July, there were 355,648 people receiving one of the main benefits and 809,001 people receiving superannuation or the veterans pension, according to the Ministry of Social Development (MSD).

The winter energy payments were doubled this year to adjust for Covid-19 related costs.

Single people without children receive $40.91 a week. Couples receive $63.64.

Chase is not alone in worrying about what will come after the winter payment ends.

Student and single mother Chloe Hattaway said the looming end-date of the winter payments added to her sometimes overwhelming anxiety.

“I was speaking with my case manager in tears. This money is critical and even though it is only $60 a week, it is really stressful to be losing it.”

ActionStation economic fairness campaigner Ruby Powell said families risked being pushed deeper into poverty with the end of the winter energy payments.

Hattaway said money was so tight that she sometimes went without food to ensure her daughter was fed. The winter energy payment provided a little bit of wriggle room to cover costs.

“We are not eating expensive food. It is bread, it is the basics. When the payment ends, it is going to be harder.”

Another winter payment recipient, who Stuff agreed not to name, said the winter energy payment barely scratched the surface but it was better than going without.

“[It is the difference between] frozen dinners some nights and more heater hours, versus shivering and luncheon sandwiches, or just luncheon when the bread goes mouldy,” he said.

“I am on supported living and with rent bills and food I start and end my payday with $0 in the bank and an overdraft. I can't work and going out is exhausting, and I still can't keep up with the costs.”

He said he dreaded the end of the month when the winter payment was removed.

“Life on the benefit is humiliating, period, and getting pennies temporarily in times of crisis is insulting when the rich are getting Covid-19 payments. We got $25, it makes me sick. Even that plus the winter payment is not enough to live with any kind of dignity whether you are disabled or without a job, or both.”

Social Development Minister Carmel Sepuloni says the Government is focused on lifting families out of poverty.

Demand for food parcels has spiked during the Covid-19 crisis.

ActionStation economic fairness campaigner Ruby Powell said the country could not risk pushing families deeper into poverty by ending the winter energy payment, particularly at this time.

“Covid-19 has disrupted the lives of everyone, including those on the benefit. Before Covid, people spent a lot of time and energy finding supplementary ways to get food for their family and to look after their families,” Powell said.

For example, on a cold day the families could go to the library, she said.

“But at various points through Covid, those informal ways of meeting your family needs have been taken away.”

The winter energy payment helped people pay their power bills so that money could be spent on other essentials, she said.

More needed to be done to alleviate poverty in New Zealand, she said.

“The reality is that 50 per cent of our population own 2 per cent of the wealth.

“That means the resources we take for granted, like being able to do your garden to plant a vegetable patch, like being able to borrow a car if your car breaks down, having friends that can give you firewood, if your firewood runs out, those options are not available to a lot of people,” Powell said.

But Social Development Minister Carmel Sepuloni said the Government had introduced a number of measures to alleviate poverty for those on the benefit.

“I recognise the significance of income adequacy in order to achieve this and that is why it has been a core part of our programme to overhaul the welfare system.”

If beneficiaries and superannuitants needed support once the winter energy payments ended, they should contact MSD, Sepuloni said.