Benefit increases will help those struggling with cost of living, Māori advocates say

Tuesday, 14 March 2023

Chris Hipkins announces increase to super, and main benefits.

An increase in core benefits will help whānau struggling to make ends meet with the rising cost of living, advocates say.

The Government announced on Monday it will increase main benefits by 7.22% from April 1.

Matt Roskruge (Te Ātiawa, Ngāti Tama), an economics professor and the associate dean Māori at Massey University, said it was a practical solution, but more work was required.

“Increasing the amount of money that we’re giving out in core benefits, it’s the most practical solution in that it immediately helps those families and whānau that are doing it tough,” he said.

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“But it can also be inflationary in that now there's just more money in people’s pockets which can be passed over to higher prices.'

Māori economist Matt Roskruge says the Government’s decision to increase core benefits will help whānau doing it tough.

Roskruge said that because of colonisation and historic disenfranchisement, Māori were more reliant on government support.

“Those increases in core benefits are really helpful, but it's an ambulance at the bottom of a cliff,” he said.

“We need to be focusing on how to grow and return wealth to the Māori economy, how to get us back into starting businesses, getting into university, getting into the trades.'

New Zealand Māori Council spokesman Peter Fraser (Ngati Hauiti) said an increase to benefits was timely, smart and prudent.

'The stark reality is that many Māori whānau are beneficiaries, members of the working poor, or are superannuitants on fixed incomes. This means mechanisms such as tax cuts are of little practical use to them,” he said.

'Instead, targeting of financial support directly via mechanisms such as the Jobseeker benefit, Working for Families, and NZ Super is a much smarter means to help the people that need it the most.'

Fraser said higher increases would have been welcomed, but the fiscal package protects household budgets from the 'worst ravages of inflation'.

'So whilst households won’t go forward, critically, they will not go back either,” he said.

The package included a superannuation increase of more than $100 a fortnight for a couple, or $66.86 for a person living alone.

“Māori superannuitants tend to be less financially secure than non-Māori and face huge expectations in terms of whānau and community-based commitments – which often voluntary in nature,” Fraser said.

“An increase of over $100 per week for a couple will therefore make a real difference for our kaumātua.'

But Fraser noted some of the funding for the package is money redirected from climate change initiatives.

“The council acknowledges the role global warming has played and the increasing risk it poses to both our communities and the whenua in the years ahead,” he said.

'It is therefore extremely important the Government come back with effective climate change policies because international action is required.'