Covid-19: Salvation Army urged govt to use pandemic recovery to address inequality

Tuesday, 16 February 2021

Three experts with a history of challenging an inequitable health system talk to Moana about using science to survive a pandemic.

The Salvation Army’s annual State of the Nation report contains plenty of reasons to be concerned.

The social housing register has hit a record high, September saw the biggest quarterly increase in unemployment since 1986, and cash-strapped Kiwis needed more emergency food parcels than ever before during 2020.

The findings led to the report having the theme of ‘Ka pū te ruha, ka hao te rangatahi’ - a proverb which directly translated to: the old net is cast aside whilst the new net goes fishing.

In 2020, the Salvation Army distributed more than 110,000 food parcels – double the number it did in 2019. (File photo)

In the context of the pandemic the report urges the government to use the Covid-19 recovery to address worsening social issues.

Salvation Army State of the Nation co-author Ronji Tanielu.

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Some of the more daunting figures in the report include a social housing register that hit a record high at over 22,400 applicants in November. Nearly half of those on the register were Māori and 10 per cent were Pasifika.

Ronji Tanielu, one of the authors of the report, said during and after the country-wide Covid-19 lockdowns some 10,000 people used the Salvation Army’s services for the first time.

Tanielu said many were middle class Kiwis who would have probably donated food to the foodbank the year before and were now using food parcels.

In the September quarter of 2020, 44,581 emergency housing special needs grants were given for the likes of motels and campsites. These grants added up to a bill of over $83 million in that quarter alone.

Salvation Army State of the Nation report co-author Paul Barber.

Increased demand on budgeting services

New customers of the charity’s budgeting service totalled 3500 between April and mid-November. These users had a debt of over $54 million between them.

Compounding the debt problem was an increase in debt to non-bank lenders, which includes the likes of finance companies, short term loan providers and loan sharks.

Kiwis’ owing to these institutions reached an estimated $6.2 billion in the year ending September, according to the report.

An increasing number of KiwiSaver members were withdrawing their savings for financial hardship reasons.

In 2020 The Salvation Army distributed more than 110,000 food parcels – double the number in 2019 and the highest number in the 14 years of this report.

Report author talks solutions

Report co-author Paul Barber called for faster implementation of the recommendations of the Welfare Expert Advisory Group Report from 2019, which focused on lifting incomes for those on welfare benefits above the poverty line, ensuring people had an adequate income and standard of living.

“This would also help to reduce child poverty and the need for other hardship assistance, as well as reducing financial pressures on people and communities that contributes to violence, addiction and mental health issues.”

Children in material hardship showed no sign of reducing, the report noted, and over 23,000 children were in benefit households during 2020, an increase on the year before.

On a positive note the number of children entering state care fell substantially in the year to June 2020. As a result, the number of children in care fell by nearly 500 – a reduction of 8 per cent compared to the year before, but still 18 per cent higher than five years ago in 2015.

The number of reports of concern about potential child abuse or neglect received by Oranga Tamariki to June 2020 was also the lowest it has been for a decade, at just over 80,000 and down by nearly 7000 compared with 2019.

Need for focus on housing

On housing, Barber said solutions needed to focus on those at the sharper end where there was a lack of housing opportunities – the homeless, those needing emergency and social housing and vulnerable renters.

“Whilst we don’t have a single recommendation, the key to better outcomes will be for government to do much more to partner with NGOs that can bring innovative and supportive approaches to provide more social and emergency housing.”

Barber called for a review of the operational and financial sustainability and effectiveness of the Government’s housing provider, Kainga Ora.

“The modest progress in reducing inequalities affecting Māori and the continuing disparities around housing, imprisonment, hazardous drinking and illicit drugs needs specific policy focus and different ways of working based on what is known to achieve better outcomes for Māori.

“Some good work is already underway, but the scale of the issues suggests much more needs to be done.”

Barber also criminal justice system reforms were offering promise of better outcomes but would take time to show through.

“We want to see more and better resourcing for work that helps support victims of crime, as well as programmes that help to reduce recidivism and help prisoners’ reintegration”

There were other positive signs, including a reduction in youth offending, and a drop in cannabis related offences.

Convictions for cannabis offences declined by 16 per cent in the year ending June 2020.

Methamphetamine offences rose however. For the year ending June 2020, there were 5110 convictions for meth-related offences - a 10 per cent increase since 2019, and a 76 per cent increase since 2015.

There were also fewer youth suicide, teenage pregnancy and abortions.

According to Stats NZ data release on Tuesday, New Zealand household disposable income was up before Covid-19 hit.

Average annual household disposable income, after tax, rose 3.9 per cent to $86,626 for the year ended June 2020 compared with a year earlier.

Responding to those statistics, Minister for Social Development and Employment Carmel Sepuloni said the government’s priorities “remain on lifting households on low to middle incomes”.

“We have taken steps to support people into employment as well as upskill and train. Initiatives such as Mana in Mahi, He Poutama Rangatahi and the Apprenticeship Boost Initiative are helping move people into employment and off income support.

“We have also worked to provide New Zealand’s most vulnerable with additional support, including raising main benefit levels by $25 per week, indexing main benefits to growth in the average wage, raising the minimum wage, expanding the Flexi-wage scheme to create more jobs, and today we announced the largest increase in benefit abatement levels in over two decades,” she said.

The Ministry of Social Development has been approached for further comment.