Complex challenges tipping Kiwi families into poverty, Auckland NGO says

Friday, 6 September 2019

A family arrives at a charity, desperate for help with a housing problem.

Ten years ago, a single agency might have offered help, and the story had a chance of ending happily.

But as a major new study study raises concerns about a $630 million funding shortfall for social service providers, families face an increasingly complex landscape when it comes to fighting poverty.

Trevor McGlinchey, the executive director at the NZ Council of Christian Social Services, said the typical Kiwi family seeking help was now often more at risk of unravelling after a single financially stressful event.

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McGlinchey said housing stress was increasingly cited as a reason for seeking help from non-government organisations, or NGOs.

Social services are increasingly trying to grapple with the often complex causes and consequences of poverty in New Zealand (file photo).

From 2008 to 2018, housing costs rose faster than average household income levels.

'With the further emergence of an even more difficult housing environment, you've got to the point where these people are quite often living in their car,' McGlinchey said.

Children of families in need often moved schools frequently, hampering their ability to learn and make friends.

'They and their family have moved addresses multiple times. There's a high-cost issue for them … bills and other things haven't been paid.

'It all becomes a bit hopeless and we can't see a way forward, and that drives mental health issues,' McGlinchey said.

'That sometimes leads to self-medication, so you have the issues of P and alcohol. The potential for family violence increases.'

Some social service providers faced 'extreme pressure' and couldn't solve the problems they'd like to, McGlinchey said.

Umbrella group Social Service Providers Aotearoa commissioned the MartinJenkins study, which said NGO workers were underpaid compared to comparable government staff.

McGlinchey said agencies needed to find ways of intervening before the complexities compounded, and community social services workers needed to be appropriately paid.

'People often wait too long for limited services that are too inflexible to meet their complex real-life needs,' the study's authors said.

Barnardos and The Salvation Army also raised concerns about underfunding after the study was released.

Mike O'Brien from the Child Poverty Action Group told Stuff if it weren't for NGOs, many Kiwi families would have to go without necessities.

O'Brien said more people were needing to use food banks. 'These families are the same families that social workers and NGOs and iwi groups are supporting.'

Social Development Minister Carmel Sepuloni accepted the sector was underfunded but told Radio New Zealand she'd commissioned work into improving funding and wasn't sure how the $630m figure was reached.

MartinJenkins said providers got less than two-thirds the cost of delivering essential services they were actually contracted to provide.

The study suggested relevant ministries address the underfunding of annual wages across providers, estimated at $300m.

Long-term priorities should include designing more fairness and transparency across contracting and procurement decisions, the study added.